Polk County Health Services, Inc., in Iowa recently started notifying 1,071 patients seen at the Crisis Observation Center in Des Moines, Iowa between June 1, 2014 and January 11, 2018. According to a statement issued on April 13, Polk County Health Services, Inc. “accidentally and unknowingly disseminated” personal and protected health information for patients seen during that…
Category: U.S.
NC: Healthcare employee gave patient information to fraud suspects, police say
WSOC reports: Patients’ Social Security numbers, dates of birth and names were all handed over to fraud suspects by a Carolina Digestive Health Associates employee. In their search warrant, police said she admitted to sharing around 100 people’s personal information to fraud suspects. She also agreed to let detectives check her phone, and the warrant…
Ex-Berkeley Medical Center employee to pay more than $22K in restitution in patient-ID theft
Matthew Umstead reports: A former Berkeley Medical Center employee was ordered Monday by a federal judge to pay more than $22,000 in restitution stemming from allegations that she obtained hospital patients’ information to open credit card and other financial accounts. Angela Dawn Roberts, aka Angela Dawn Lee, 42, of Stephenson, Va., who pleaded guilty in…
Deeper Dive: Take Action to Close the Largest Cause of Data Security Incidents – Your Employees
David Kitchen writes: If you work at a typical company, employee actions and inadvertent disclosures present the greatest threat to the security of your data. Therefore, providing proper training and technical safeguards is one of the most important means to enhance your company’s security profile. In BakerHostetler’s newly-released 2018 Data Security Incident Response Report, we…
Massachusetts Enacts Law Providing Greater Privacy of Health Insurance Information
Michael Bertoncini writes: Health insurance carriers often provide explanation of benefits (EOB) summaries to the policyholder specifying the type and cost of health care services received by dependents covered by the policy. EOBs often disclose sensitive information regarding the mental or physical health condition of adult dependents. Massachusetts has now enacted a law, an act…
States Increase HIPAA Enforcement
Elliot Golding and Jennifer Tharp of Squire Patton Boggs write: Overview of Recent Settlement Actions Recent Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) enforcement settlements for Virtual Medical Group (“VMG”) in New Jersey and EmblemHealth in New York may signal a broader trend of increased state HIPAA enforcement. Under the Health Information Technology for Economic…