Melanie Jacob reports: A person’s health record is a very private thing, and yet it’s not always difficult to access someone else’s. Thanks to new amendments to The Health Information Protection Act (HIPA), people’s health privacy has been strengthened. The amendments include offences for “snooping,” willful disclosure of personal information, and not properly securing health…
Category: Uncategorized
OR: Corvallis Clinic laptop with PHI stolen from employee's car
From the web site of Corvallis Clinic: Patient Privacy Disclosure As guardians entrusted with maintaining information securely, we feel it is important to notify our patients of an incident involving a single laptop computer containing limited health information. The laptop was stolen from a Corvallis Clinic employee’s locked car at a work-related conference in Portland…
They Know You Buy Viagra and They Want to Sell You More
Jordan Robertson and Shannon Pettypiece report: Ever since the days of castor oil laxatives and mercury syphilis tablets, pharmacists and patients have had a tacit understanding: whatever you buy, the information is confidential. No longer. Drugmakers and Internet companies are quietly joining forces to link U.S. pharmacy records with online accounts to target ads to…
Update: Baptist Primary Care employee stole 1,449 patients' info
The Baptist Primary Care breach, reported previously on this site, reportedly affected 1,449 patients, as per the covered entity’s notification to HHS.
FL: Emergency room nurse fired, accused of using patients' credit card info
The Herald-Tribune reports: A registered nurse has been fired and arrested after allegedly using patients’ credit card information to make personal purchases. While investigating separate fraudulent credit card cases, detectives determined the victims’ information had been stolen while receiving treatment at the Lakewood Ranch Medical Center‘s emergency room, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office….
Tribeca Medical Center Issues Notice Regarding a Potential Privacy Issue Involving its Patients
The breach involving Dr. Nisar A. Quraishi’s patients has been covered previously on this blog, including the differing numbers reported to the police and HHS. There is now a notice posted on the Tribeca Medical Center’s web site. The doctor does not seem to be offering those affected any free credit monitoring services at his expense:…