Nick Heath writes: Spending almost £3bn on a project that pleases no one is an act of incompetence. But burning through another £4bn by persisting with that same doomed endeavour amounts to lunacy. There appear to be no winners in the Department of Health’s project to create electronic patient records. Not the GP surgeries and…
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Final PHI Protection Rule Won't Mandate Encryption
The omnibus federal final rule that will cover changes to the HIPAA privacy, security, breach notification and enforcement rules will not include a mandate for encryption of protected health information, confirms Susan McAndrew, deputy director for health information privacy in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights. […] McAndrew wasn’t as…
Medical records vulnerable (updated)
Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of Associated Press reports: The nation’s push to computerize medical records has failed to fully address longstanding security gaps that expose patients’ most sensitive information to hackers and snoops, government investigators warn. Two reports released today by the inspector general of the Health and Human Services Department find that the drive to connect…
Lawsuit over newborn blood tests explores privacy rights
Ian Mulgrew reports: A lawsuit against the Provincial Health Services Authority over the collection and storage of B.C. and Yukon newborns’ blood has received a green light to proceed. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Robert Sewell, however, says the suit launched last year by an anonymous couple and their kids over the until-then hidden DNA database…
NY's highest court rules HIPAA trumps Kendra's law
Alison Frankel of Reuters reports: U.S. privacy laws bar release of a mental health patient’s records as part of an effort to compel outpatient treatment unless the disclosure is authorized by the patient or a court, the New York Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday. It was the first time a state’s highest court had…
Florida Bill Would Bar Doctors From Asking Patients About Guns
David Taintor writes: As NPR reports, a Florida bill would bar doctors — in particular pediatricians — from asking their patients if they own guns. Gov. Rick Scott (R) is expected to sign the bill this week, which would make Florida the first state with such a law.Scott’s office would not release a timeline on when…