Gary Klien reports in the Marin Independent Journal: A Martinez woman who used another person’s identity to get a $20,000 breast lift and tummy tuck in Greenbrae was sentenced Wednesday to nine months in the Marin County Jail. She nearly got away with it, but a get-well bouquet and a navel itch were her undoing….
Search Results for: patient
UK: Wirral PCT faces local data privacy backlash
Wirral Primary Care Trust has delayed plans to introduce a telephone support service provided by a US contractor, after a local outcry at plans to transfer extracts from patient records to a private company. The proposed new health coaching service, called ‘Wirral Keep Well’, provided by Health Dialog, a US subsidiary of Bupa that provides…
Security Breach: More Laws Needed. Let's Add Health Care
Over on InformationWeek, George Hulme is singing our tune: […] But let’s just stick to health care. More than 1.5 million patient records at hospitals have been exposed by data breaches during 2006 and 2007, according to the 2008 HIMSS Analytics Report: Security of Patient Data, commissioned by Kroll Fraud Solutions. That begs the question:…
UK: NHS hit by new data losses
Kate Foster of Scotland on Sunday reports: THE loss of confidential personal data has become so widespread that patients’ groups last night launched a campaign to tighten up security in the NHS. The move comes as Scotland on Sunday reveals hundreds of cases of breaches concerning patients’ notes. Two lost USB computer memory sticks containing…
Data miners track docs' habits
Matthew Perrone of the Associated Press reports: When most patients go to the pharmacy to fill a new prescription, they don’t think twice about turning over the note from their doctor. After all, how much could the scrawled handwriting on that tiny slip be worth? Not much to the average consumer — but to big…
ID theft scheme brings sentence for Oklahoma City woman (follow-up)
Jay F. Marks reports: An Oklahoma City woman was sentenced Friday to more than a year in prison for violating a federal health privacy law in an identity theft scheme. Leslie A. Howell pleaded guilty in May to violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, a federal law meant to protect patients’…