Jaikumar Vijayan reports: Despite lingering privacy concerns, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is plowing ahead with plans to build a massive centralized database containing detailed healthcare claims information on millions of federal employees and their families. The agency on Wednesday released two formal notices in the Federal Register detailing plans for the new…
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Spartanburg hospital, police keeping quiet on details of stolen laptop investigation
Stephen Largen provides an update on a breach mentioned previously on this blog: Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System and the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office are keeping many of the details of an ongoing investigation into a stolen laptop computer secret from the public. The laptop was reported stolen from an SRHS employee’s vehicle in late March…
12 Steps for Surviving an HHS/OCR Privacy Breach Investigation
From their press release: 12 Steps for Surviving an HHS/OCR Privacy Breach Investigation Free Interactive Tool and Checklist for Healthcare Organizations, from ID Experts, Available At http://www2.idexpertscorp.com/breach-tools/ocr-survival-tool/ The U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has been cracking down on its enforcement of the HIPAA/HITECH Privacy, Security and Data…
A call to do more on privacy
Joseph Conn writes: The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology recently took a white-paper whipping from the HHS inspector general’s office. I had a chance during a telephone interview last week to hear from a rebuttal witness, privacy lawyer Joy Pritts, chief privacy officer at the ONC. Pritts said the government is…
Three more reports to HHS revealed
The HHS breach tool has added three new incidents: Indiana Regional Medical Center in Pennsylvania reported that 1388 patients were notified of a September 28, 2010 incident involving the theft of paper records. The incident had been reported in the media earlier this month. The Indiana Gazette reported: Indiana Regional Medical Center has put more…
Leader Of Prescription Fraud Scheme Sentenced For Health Care Fraud HIPAA Violations And Aggravated Identify Theft
U.S. District Judge C. Lynwood Smith Jr. today sentenced Isaac Earl Smith, 38, of Pleasant Grove to six years in prison for his part in a prescription fraud scheme. Between September 2008 and April 2009, Smith engaged in a criminal conspiracy to commit health care fraud that resulted in HIPAA violations and aggravated identity theft….