The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has issued a Notice of Final Determination finding that Cignet Health of Prince George’s County, Md., (Cignet) violated the Privacy Rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA). HHS has imposed a civil money penalty (CMP) of…
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Coming in "under the line:" when breaches affect less than 500 individuals
In a blog post, “500 Is a Magic Number: Health Information Breaches Impacting 499 or Fewer Patients Likely Go Uninvestigated By OCR,” Colin J. Zick of Foley Hoag writes: In the recently-released fiscal 2012 budget for HHS, a dirty little secret has been acknowledged: the Office of Civil Rights does not have the resources to…
Howard Brown experiences security breach
Chicago-based Howard Brown Health Center has posted a breach notice on its web site: Dear Howard Brown Donor and Friend, At Howard Brown Health Center, we take the security and privacy of our donors’ information very seriously. Yesterday, we identified a potential breach in our donor database. The donor database that was potentially breached includes personal…
HK: Kwai Chung Hospital reports loss of personal USB flash drive
The spokesperson for Kwai Chung Hospital (KCH) made the following announcement today (February 18) regarding a hospital staff member who lost a USB flash drive containing patients’ data: An occupational therapist at KCH discovered the loss of her personal USB flash drive after getting off a taxi on February 16. She immediately reported the loss…
Taking Those Prize Photos of Your New Born In the Hospital May Not Be Permitted!Why? Is This Really HIPAA and HITECH?
Nymity interview with Rebecca Herold: Many hospitals are concerned about or are even not permitting parents, grandparents and visitors to take photographs of new born babies or patients in their main public area facilities or even in less public area facilities and perhaps in turn, posting those pictures on Facebook or other more public sites. In addition,…
Privacy breach investigation at St Thomas Elgin General Hospital
Scott Kitching reports: Hospital officials in St Thomas have launched an investigation after a breach of privacy involving almost 100 patients at St Thomas Elgin General Hospital. A statement from the hospital says personal health information on a printed schedule was found in a parking lot on February 2nd. Included in the schedule were details…