Joseph Conn reports: A federally backed consortium of behavioral health providers, administrators and health information exchange experts has joined the chorus of voices addressing the vexing issue of how to pass along medical records for behavioral health patients without violating their privacy rights. The Behavioral Health Data Exchange Consortium, in a 105-page final report and…
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Feds begin HIPAA probe in Cincinnati
Evan Schuman reports an update to a breach where a woman’s syphilis diagnosis was posted online: The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has launched a federal probe into HIPAA privacy violations at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, according to an HHS spokesperson. […] The investigation began last week after Healthcare IT News contacted HHS to ask…
Google: 100,000 lives a year lost through fear of data-mining
Not everyone agrees that there’s too much data-mining of health information. Alex Herm reports: Fear of data-mining of healthcare could be costing as many as 100,000 lives a year, according to Google’s Larry Page. Speaking out in response to fears over his company’s vast haul of personal information, Page made the case that not only…
CA: Riverside County Regional Medical Center notified 563 patients about missing laptop with PHI
Here’s yet another case involving a missing (presumed stolen) laptop with unencrypted PHI that was used with a medical device, but seemingly not physically secured enough. This breach involves the Riverside County Regional Medical Center. I recently reported a similar type of breach at a VA medical center in Denver. The following statement was posted on the hospital’s website today: Hospital Patients…
Radiologist bypasses billing system computer security and acquires 97,000 patients’ info from NRAD Medical Associates – Update 4
Posting this here temporarily as phiprivacy.net is experiencing some problems. Usually when I see an envelope from NRAD Medical Associates, P.C. in my mail, it concerns a radiology bill or insurance matter following services there. But today, I opened the envelope to find a breach notification. Their notification, signed by their president, vice-president, and secretary-treasuresr, begins with the now somewhat…
Inside a VA breach investigation
A breach involving the Denver VA center was reported in the VA’s most recent monthly report to Congress. I’m including it here because it shows how thorough the VA can be in investigating breaches – and how time-consuming and labor-intensive it can be when someone neglects security measures like a cable: Incident Summary Two biomedical device laptops were…