Isaiah Poritz reports: Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. won a preliminary injunction in California federal court against medical records company SureFile Filing Systems for attempting to sell patient data using Kaiser’s trademarks. Kaiser is likely to succeed on the merits of its breach of contract and common law trademark counterclaims against SureFile, Judge Mark C. Scarsi…
Search Results for: SureFile
An old HIPAA incident rears its very ugly head again
Like other journalists who cover data breaches in the healthcare space, I routinely check HHS’s public breach disclosure tool (sometimes called “The Wall of Shame”) to see what breaches have been reported to them and with what numbers. One of the recent entries was from a “Stephan C. Dean” who listed himself as a business…
North Country Hospital struggles to retrieve laptop that may contain PHI from former employee (UPDATED)
North Country Hospital in Newport, Vermont posted this notice on their web site: North Country Hospital is alerting its patients to the discovery of a recent privacy breach that may involve your personal information. On September 18, 2013, we received notice that a former employee of the Hospital claimed to be in possession of a…
Kaiser Permanente lawsuit against former business associate dismissed, but are patient data still at risk?
If you’re a privacy professional or information security professional looking for a cautionary tale or a nightmare case to use in your presentations, this may be it. In reading about this case, however, keep in mind that there has never been any indication that patient misinformation was disclosed improperly or that it has been misused….
It's 10 pm. Do you know where your patients' data are?
Financial disputes may underlie some vendors retaining patient or client data – as in the Kaiser Permanente/Surefile Filing Systems case I’ve blogged about on this site or the Irvine Scientific breach I described on DataBreaches.net. But there are other possible motivations for not relinquishing or taking data as well. Maura Lerner of the Star Tribune…
Breaking up is hard to do, part 2: The vendor strikes back
Today’s Los Angeles Times covers a situation I discussed yesterday involving Kaiser Permanente and Surefile Filing Systems*. Because Chad Terhune’s report involves statements by Stephan Dean, owner of Surefile, some of its details may appear to contradict what I reported yesterday. In actuality, the “he said – they said” nature of the reporting simply emphasizes…