UPI reports: An Arizona county is trying to get reliable data on whether its employees are smokers by testing saliva, a move some workers are resisting. “They gotta do what they gotta do, but it is kind of an invasion of our privacy,” Dee Webber, a Maricopa County accounting employee and admitted smoker, told The…
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What's 100,000 more or less in a data breach, right?
It may be a measure of how blasé we’ve become about data breaches. Today’s newly revealed Health Net breach reportedly affected 1.9 million members, employees, and providers. Now that’s a huge number, right? But I guess some in the media decided that a headline with 1.9 million just wasn’t sexy enough, because tonight I see…
NB Privacy commissioner probes storage of medical records
Tammy Scott-Wallace reports: The province’s access to information and privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into the proper safekeeping of medical records in light of concerns in the Sussex area. Last month patients of Dr. Cathy Hurd, who left her practice in Sussex before Christmas to work outside the province, were outraged when they received…
PR for EHRs: More to the Story Than Data Breaches
Gienna Shaw reports: […] It doesn’t matter how many or how few times a healthcare organization’s data is breached or even if it is only potentially breached. In the healthcare industry, it takes just one event—a lost laptop, a misfired e-mail, or a website that leaks sensitive, user-specific data—to make headlines. […] Stories in the…
Texas House approves bill requiring ultrasounds before abortions
The Texas House of Representatives on Monday displayed its utter contempt for women’s privacy by voting 107-42 [roll call] to approve legislation that requires women seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound before the procedure is performed. The bill [HB 15 text; materials] requires doctors to conduct a vaginal ultrasound and display the images at…
South Dakota legislature passes bill requiring 72-hour waiting period for abortions
Brian Jackson writes: The South Dakota State Senate on Wednesday passed a bill [roll call] that would require women to wait 72 hours after consulting with a doctor to have an abortion. In addition to the waiting period, HB 1217 [legislative materials] would require that pregnant women receive consultation at a “pregnancy help center” and that the…