This press release from Ireland’s Health Information and Quality Authority is of note: A new guide on how to protect people’s privacy within healthcare services has been published by the Health Information and Quality Authority. Professor Jane Grimson, Director of Health Information at HIQA said: “With so much information being collected, used and shared in…
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Should HHS follow the ICO's lead?
Yesterday, the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office used its authority to issue fines for breaches of the Data Protection Act and issued its first fines ever. Neither breach involved a healthcare facility, despite the large number of breaches experienced by the NHS. But in what may be a warning shot, the ICO fined Hertfordshire County Council…
Federal Appeals Court Overturns Vermont Law that Restricted Commercial Use of Physician Information
IMS Health issued the following press release: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit today ruled that a Vermont law restricting the commercial use of information relating to physician prescribing patterns is unconstitutional. Judge John G. Koeltl wrote the majority opinion overturning an April 2009 U.S. District Court decision, concluding the Vermont law…
Privacy Advocates Win Database Delay
Oops — I missed this story last week. Howard Anderson reports: The launch of a national database of certain healthcare claims data, which was slated for Monday, has been delayed in the wake of strong concerns voiced by privacy advocates. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s claims database proposal, announced Oct. 5, lacks sufficient privacy policy details and…
House Bill to Limit Scope of Red Flags Rule with Amended "Creditor" Definition
Hunton & Williams have an informative law blog, Privacy and Information Security Law Blog, and if you haven’t already bookmarked, you should. Yesterday they wrote: On November 17, 2010, Representative John Adler (D-NJ) introduced the Red Flag Program Clarification Act of 2010 (H.R. 6420) to “amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act with respect to the…
NZ: Doctor to keep fighting privacy complaint
Here’s a case where a healthcare provider is maintaining that a privacy breach was necessary to protect the health and safety of others: An Invercargill doctor is refusing to settle over a privacy complaint, saying it would be “moral cowardice”. Robert Henderson is due to appear before the Human Rights Tribunal on November 30 for…