Jaikumar Vijayan reports: In response to considerable privacy concerns, the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) could soon release more details on its plans to build a controversial new database containing information on the healthcare claims of millions of Americans. The agency will also likely delay its planned November 15 launch of the new database…
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Will New Congress Alter HITECH Plans?
Howard Anderson writes: Republicans have pledged to block the spending of any economic stimulus money not yet spent, but it’s unlikely they’ll try to pull the plug on the federal HITECH Act incentive payments for use ofelectronic health records several observers say. But they expect the new Congress will keep a very close eye on the…
How to identify spreadsheets and databases with protected health information (PII and PHI)
Shahid writes: The nice folks from IBM’s developerWorks group asked me to write an intermediate-level set of instructions (with a little code) for how technical teams can identify and find databases and spreadsheets that might contain personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI). The article is now available on IBM’s developerWork… Read more…
New FTC portal to assist businesses in complying with privacy and security laws
From the FTC’s press release: The Federal Trade Commission has a new Business Center at Business.ftc.gov that gives business owners, attorneys, and marketing professionals the tools they need to understand and comply with the consumer protection laws, rules, and guides the FTC enforces. The Business Center provides practical, plain-language guidance about advertising, credit, telemarketing, privacy, and a host…
Family Not Entitled to Post-Autopsy Brain
As I’ve occasionally mentioned, I adhere to the “gut doctrine” of law: if a ruling feels wrong in my gut, it must be wrong. And so the gut doctrine tells me that there’s something very wrong with a decision out of Michigan. Jeff Gorman of Courthouse News reports: Family members do not have the right…
Privacy advocates fear massive fed health database
Jaikumar Vijayan reports: Several privacy groups have raised alarms over plans by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to build a database that would contain information about the healthcare claims of millions of Americans. The concerns have surfaced because the OPM has provided few details about the new database and because the data collected…