I was somewhat surprised – and disappointed – to see how a question on Kaiser Health News was answered. Michelle Andrews writes: Q. After signing up for a gold level plan on the health insurance marketplace, my physician, who is part of my plan, asked for $75 up front. My copayment is $25. His office…
Payment Card Breaches: Time to Spread the Risk with Mandatory Cyber Insurance
David Navetta writes: The BIG 2014 security stories concerning the Target, Neiman Marcus and Michaels payment card breaches of have highlighted the significant criminal hacking and fraudulent payment card activity that goes on in the retail space. Of course, it was not so long ago that the Heartland Payment Systems breach (2008; 100 million cards exposed) and the TJX breach in (2007; 45 million card exposed)…
FTC Approves Final Consent Settling Charges that Accretive Health Failed to Adequately Protect Consumers’ Personal Information
Following a public comment period, the Federal Trade Commission has approved a final consent order settling charges that a company providing medical billing and revenue management services to hospitals in multiple states unfairly exposed sensitive consumer information to the risk of theft or misuse because of its inadequate data security measures. The FTC alleged that the Chicago-based company violated…
Oregon secretary of state website back online after hacker attack
KATU reports: Oregon’s secretary of state’s website was fully back in business Monday after “an unauthorized intrusion” earlier this month, according to the agency. […] When the intrusion was discovered Feb. 4, the agency shut down the state’s online business registry and campaign finance records. The state said the hackers didn’t get access to the…
Health magazine containing Social Security numbers on address labels mailed to 50,000 Medicare recipients
Cecilia Chan reports: The latest edition of Banner Health’s “Smart & Healthy Magazine” arrived to mailboxes over the weekend containing Social Security numbers of recipients on the address labels. “We try so hard to protect our Social Security number and then to have it publicized, it’s very disturbing,” Sun City West resident Janet Carlson said…
LabMD voluntarily dismisses its lawsuit against the FTC, but says they'll be back
After recently announcing it was winding down its operations as a result of the FTC’s protracted investigation and complaint against it, LabMD voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit against the FTC last week. The chronology might suggest that the two events were related, but two people close to the case say that they are not related. LabMD’s…