Evan Axelbank reports: Ernestine Marshall can’t even go to the bathroom without someone knowing. “I didn’t know how closely they were watching me until I received a phone call, and I was like, whoa! Ok!” she said. The diabetic and MS patient’s home is outfitted by insurer, Humana, with sensors that keep track of when…
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Handling of community mental health center medical records raises HIPAA concerns
A small item of local news in Lincoln, Nebraska caught my eye this morning. And the more I read, the more concerned I became. Kevin Abourezk reports on the Lincoln Journal Star: Lancaster County officials think they may have found a way to move more than 200 boxes of medical records left in the basement…
Update: Sutherland Healthcare Solutions breach affected over 220,000 patients, and counting (update1)
Well, I tried to warn Sutherland Healthcare Solutions that they shouldn’t let their breach dribble out and stay in the news cycle, but they declined to be more transparent. So now we have yet more news about their recent breach that affected more than 168,000 patients of Los Angeles County departments of Health Services and Public Health as well as an…
HealthPartners: Insurance client data was breached 2008-10
Christopher Snowbeck reports: Bloomington-based HealthPartners is sending letters to about 38,000 health plan members regarding a privacy breach that occurred between 2008 and 2010. The breach involved a HealthPartners employee who wrongly shared information with a family member in order to get help formatting files to prepare quality improvement reports, according to a news release…
LabMD files suit against FTC in Georgia
Well, they said that they’d be filing again soon, and they have. Yesterday, LabMD filed a lawsuit in federal court in Georgia against the FTC that challenges its authority. For those first catching up with the legal issues, the guts of their main arguments are contained in this paragraph in their complaint: Even if Section…
Does Walgreens’ New Up-Close-And-Personal Pharmacy Approach Violate Privacy Laws?
Chris Morran writes: In an effort intended to provide pharmacy customers a less impersonal experience, some Walgreens stores have been redesigned to get pharmacists out in the store, consulting with customers at desks, without the traditional counter (and sometimes panes of bulletproof glass) between them. But the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services wants…