Arie Friedman, MD writes: As I have read through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA, aka ObamaCare), I have been repeatedly struck by the disregard the law has for patient privacy. Time and time again, the PPACA authorizes the federal government to obtain information about patients directly from their health care…
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AU: Please take a number
Karen Kissane reports: …. the federal government will introduce shared electronic health records. If the roll-out goes to plan, by July 1, 2012, any patient will be able to ask their doctor to create one. They will be uploaded on the web to be accessed – with patient permission – by any of the nation’s…
Another "balancing" argument about privacy and EHRs
Some days I feel like a health care sector Paula Revere spreading the warning, “the breaches are coming, the breaches are coming!” I just saw this commentary on HealthNewsDigest.com by Eric Demers, the senior vice president of health and life science at MEDecision: …. We shouldn’t allow overreactions to misperceived weaknesses in EHR security to…
Former UPMC Shadyside Hospital employee charged with HIPAA violation
In the first HIPAA prosecution in the Western District of Pennsylvania, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced this week that a resident of Monroeville, Pa., had been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of multiple illegal disclosures and use of patient individually identifiable health information for personal gain. The Health…
Former UPMC Shadyside Hospital employee charged with HIPAA violation
In the first HIPAA prosecution in the Western District of Pennsylvania, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced this week that a resident of Monroeville, Pa., had been indicted by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of multiple illegal disclosures and use of patient individually identifiable health information for personal gain. The Health…
Janitor at L.A. County health clinic allegedly stole files for recycling money
Molly Hennessy-Fiske reports: A janitor at the Martin Luther King Jr. Multi-Service Ambulatory Care Center in Willowbrook has been charged with felony commercial burglary for allegedly selling 14 boxes of patient records to a recycling center, authorities said Thursday. The boxes contained computer printouts of about 30,000 patient names, addresses, phone numbers and medical record…