Dr. Deborah Peel of Patient Privacy Rights kindly gave me permission to reprint this blog post: The biggest myth about ‘Big Data’ users of the entire nation’s health information is that personal health data was acquired legally and ethically. Just ask anyone you know if they ever agreed to the hidden use and sale of…
Category: Uncategorized
MD: Medicaid mailing mishap leaks personal information; state blames health exchange contractor
Michael Quander reports: The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange has another problem on their hands after hundreds of Medicaid enrollment packages were mistakenly mailed to the wrong addresses. The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene explained they were first alerted to the problem on Friday. A customer called an enrollment broker saying they had received…
UK: NHS patient data to be made available for sale to drug and insurance firms
Randeep Ramesh reports: Drug and insurance companies will from later this year be able to buy information on patients – including mental health conditions and diseases such as cancer, as well as smoking and drinking habits – once a single English database of medical data has been created. Harvested from GP and hospital records, medical…
Arrest made in theft of Inspira Medical Center Vineland computer, but what was on it?
So first Inspira Medical Center Vineland said a computer had been stolen on December 23 and they were evaluating whether it had any patient data on it. Three days later, they said it had no patient data on it. Now three weeks later, they announce that a former employee was arrested in connection with the theft…
Texas doctor charged with aggravated identity theft for misusing Medicare patients' names in fraud scheme
Miles Moffeit reports: A federal grand jury has handed down additional charges against Dr. Tariq Mahmood, whose rural hospital chain collapsed last year amid reports of reckless care and alleged fraud. The Dallas businessman now faces seven counts of aggravated identity theft, according to papers filed in U.S.district court in Tyler. Those come on top of eight…
Maintenance note
I’ve been informed that tonight (Thursday), my web host will be performing a server update, and that my sites may be unavailable at some point. They anticipate the outage to be 15-30 minutes. Based on past experiences, if I’m not back online by tomorrow noon, send coffee….