Some collaboration or sharing of patient information seems potentially useful, even if it is money motivating the sharing. Julie Bird reports: Hospitals are looking to large drugstore chains, their vast databases and patient-outreach resources to help reduce hospital readmission rates. With medication discrepancies doubling the risk of hospital readmissions, contracting with drugstores to monitor for…
PA: Pileggi pushes for update to vague law on personal data theft
Melissa Daniels reports: Back in 2007, the theft of several state computers jeopardized the personal information of as many as 400,000 Pennsylvanians. Desktop computers from the Department of Public Welfare were taken from offices in Harrisburg and Philadelphia. Then, a laptop issued to the Department of Aging was stolen from a private residence. There’s no telling what someone might…
What can we learn from a statistic that 1 in 4 recipients of breach notification letters become victims of ID fraud?
I haven’t read the new Javelin Strategy & Research report because it’s pricey, but their press release on it contains some of its key findings. Of note: … nearly 1 in 4 data breach letter recipients became a victim of identity fraud, with breaches involving Social Security numbers to be the most damaging. If 1 in…
EXCLUSIVE: Johns Hopkins offering patients affected by privacy breach free counseling services
As I mentioned in previous posts, Johns Hopkins’ first breach statement about OB/GYN patients who may have been secretly photographed or videotaped by a physician included a reference to “counseling” for patients. Since this was the first time I’ve ever seen a reference to “counseling” in a breach notification statement and it struck me as…
Your noncompliant ways may be coming to an end
Jeff Drummond blogs: OCR to Focus Audits on Entities with Long-Standing Patterns of Non-Compliance. According to BNA (subscription required), OCR will look for organizations with long histories of noncompliance, across all areas of the healthcare industry. Entities that can demonstrate efforts to create and nurture a “culture of compliance” will come out of audits looking good. Entities…
NL: Opposition to digital patient records mounts, court case to go ahead
DutchNews.nl reports: The family doctors’ association Vereniging van Praktijkhoudende Huisartsen is pressing ahead with legal action against the introduction of a new electronic patient records system because its backers have failed to meet agreements on internet security and privacy. The VPH said in December it would delay a planned court case because the organisers pledged…