The BMA is calling for confidential health information to be exempt from new government legislation which will allow sharing of personal data across Whitehall departments. The controversial powers are included in the Coroners and Justice Bill which had its second reading in the House of Commons last week. The BMA claimed the data sharing powers…
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Washington Legislature: Bill to keep prescription data from drug firms
Kathie Durbin reports: If you think your prescription drug history is a confidential medical record, think again. Thanks to a loophole in federal privacy laws, it’s legal for pharmacists to share that history with drug company marketers, who can use the information to promote specific drugs directly to consumers. States can plug that loophole by…
Your E-Health Records (Editorial)
As part of the stimulus package, $20 billion will be pumped into the health care system to accelerate the use of electronic health records. The goal is both to improve the quality and lower the costs of care by replacing cumbersome paper records with electronic records that can be easily stored and swiftly transmitted. The…
SEC Review of Apple May Pit Investors Against Privacy
Karen Gullo, Connie Guglielmo and David Scheer report: Apple Inc.’s shifting disclosures about Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs’s health are forcing regulators into new legal territory, balancing investors’ right to information against a last bastion of executive privacy. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s inquiry, reported by Bloomberg News last week, is likely to examine how…
Stimulus bill includes protection for digital health care records
Dan Kaplan reports: A portion of the $818 billion stimulus bill that was passed this week by the U.S. House calls for computerizing all health records in five years, but the legislation also contains stringent privacy and security controls to protect this online data. Experts said these measures would complement the Health Insurance Portability and…
Electronic Health Records: DOD's and VA's Sharing of Information Could Benefit from Improved Management
GAO-09-268 January 28, 2009 Summary Under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are required to accelerate the exchange of health information between the departments and to develop systems or capabilities that allow for interoperability (generally, the ability of systems…