Dennis Melamed writes: The Kabuki we see in the transition to electronic health records obscures two obvious and fundamental issues: The nature of the confidentiality privilege for electronic records maintained by patients instead of doctors; and The right to avoid self-incrimination when medical records contain information that might result in criminal prosecutions. Both issues deal…
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Los Angeles Area Health Care Company Owner Pleads Guilty to Medical Identity Theft and Medicare Fraud
A La Crescenta man pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges of defrauding Medicare by using patients’ Medicare identification numbers without their knowledge, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Matthew Friedrich and U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Thomas P. O’Brien announced. Between August 2003 and April 2008, Melkon Gabriyelyan,…
UK: Health staff warned over data
HEALTH workers have been threatened with police action if they break data protection laws. In a note to NHS Lothian staff, bosses said there was a “zero tolerance” approach to the issue. The reminder comes after a memory stick containing 137 patient records was lost earlier this year. Read more in Edinburgh Evening News
Virginia Beach man pleads guilty in identity theft, fraud (Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center follow-up)
Lauren King reports: A Virginia Beach man pleaded guilty today to aggravated identity theft and participating in a scheme to defraud Navy Federal Credit Union, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the eastern district of Virginia. Jorge Luis Silva-Davalos, 29, is to be sentenced Jan. 22 and faces up…
New health-care privacy laws heighten need for HIPAA compliance in California
Jaikumar Vijayan reports: Health care organizations that operate in California have two more good reasons to be sure that they comply with the data security and privacy requirements of the federal HIPAA law. Last week, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law two pieces of legislation that significantly increase state fines for security and privacy…
FTC cracks down on medical identity theft
Ann Zeigler reports: The FTC plans to issue a new consumer protection rule that will take on the issue of medical identity theft, a growing concern now that identity thieves have recognized that medical records are rich sources of financial information that can be used to obtain credit with someone else’s history. Alternate forms of…