Karen M. Cheung has more on the Prime Healthcare case, reporting that the FBI has interviewed the patient who gave her records to California Watch. While much of the report concerns the original focus of possible fraudulent billing of Medicare, some of the story concerns the privacy aspects. Reading it, you can understand why Prime…
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Prime Healthcare defends its disclosure of patient records – are they begging for a federal and state prosecution or what?
There’s a follow-up to a situation I blogged about earlier this week where a patients’ records were revealed to media by executives of Shasta Regional Medical Center without explicit patient consent. Michael Hiltzik provides an update to his previous coverage: Prime Healthcare has responded, with a letter and a public statement, to my January 4 column about the…
Hackers Seek Ransom From Two More California Hospitals
Chad Terhune reports: Hackers demanded a ransom from two more Southern California hospitals last week and federal authorities are investigating the case. Prime Healthcare Services Inc., a fast-growing national hospital chain, said the attackers infiltrated computer servers on Friday at two of its California hospitals, Chino Valley Medical Center in Chino and Desert Valley Hospital…
Duty of confidentiality trumps your desire to defend your reputation
Remember when Prime Healthcare and Shasta Regional Medical Center were fined by federal and state agencies for breaching patient privacy? They had willfully disclosed patient details to the media after the media had reported the patient’s complaint about them. At the time, I noted that just because a patient discloses information, that does not give the covered entity the…
Prime hospital cited for patient confidentiality violation
Lance Williams reports on a case previously covered on this blog: A Prime Healthcare Services hospital in Redding broke state law when it publicized a patient’s confidential medical files in an effort to discredit a California Watch news report, state regulators say. The state Department of Public Health on Tuesday issued five “deficiencies” against Shasta…
Her case shows why healthcare privacy laws exist
Michael Hiltzik writes: Of all the personal information that you might want to keep private, your medical records are the most important. That’s why federal and state laws carry stiff penalties, up to and including jail time, for healthcare providers who let such data loose into the wild. So you should be aghast at how…