Eric Larson writes that even when a physician’s posting or use of social media doesn’t violate HIPAA, it can still be problematic. Consider this case, involving an OB/GYN at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center in St. Louis, Mo. The doctor posted something on her Facebook page about a patient who continually was late or a…
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Utah senate passes bill that would require Medicaid or CHIP participants be notified that their data will be in state databases
Sometimes breaches result in legislation. That appears to be the case in Utah, where the Associated Press reports that the state senate passed a bill in response to two breaches the state experienced: Utah lawmakers want to alert participants in the state Medicaid program or Children’s Health Insurance Program that their personal information will be…
In Online Patient Communities, How Much Sharing Is Too Much?
Lindsay Abrams writes: When you become a patient, a whole new world of social networking opens up. There’s one site that was described to me as being “like Match.com for cancer patients,” because it sorts its users by a/s/l, along with type of cancer and treatment. Another tailors itself to women with breast cancer and provides a space…
ACLU Challenging DEA’s Access to Confidential Prescription Records Without a Warrant
Ooh. I missed this important post by Nathan Freed Wessler of the ACLU last week: The Drug Enforcement Administration is trying to access private prescription records of patients in Oregon without a warrant, despite a state law forbidding it from doing so. The ACLU and its Oregon affiliate are challenging this practice in a new…
UK: Big brother to log your drinking habits and waist size as GPs are forced to hand over confidential records
Jack Doyle reports: GPs are to be forced to hand over confidential records on all their patients’ drinking habits, waist sizes and illnesses. The files will be stored in a giant information bank that privacy campaigners say represents the ‘biggest data grab in NHS history’. They warned the move would end patient confidentiality and hand…
Docs 'n guns, Part 2: Psychiatrists, mental health advocates uneasy with gun policy prescriptions
Kevin Rector reports: Sitting around a broad table in a nondescript office in Reisterstown (Maryland) last week, more than a dozen mental health advocates, medical professionals and law enforcement officials stared tensely at one another. Nearly a month after the state-created task force issued a report outlining its findings on psychiatric patients’ access to firearms,…