Jared Reed reports: Medical groups say heavy fines for practices that breach regulations for the new unique health identifier legislation are unnecessary and will stop doctors using them in the first place. Contravening a minor regulation exposes practices of fines of up to $5,500 a time. The legislation, due for debate in the Senate next…
Hospital board mum on possible privacy violations
Tim Lockette reports: Officials at Regional Medical Center [in Anniston, Alabama] have completed their first look into possible violations of patient privacy at the hospital. But so far, the results of that investigation are, well, private. “This is a peer review document, and as such it is not something we can release to the public,”…
Blood Bank’s computer stolen
Jim Mendoza reports: Honolulu police are on the lookout for thieves who stole a laptop computer from the Blood Bank of Hawaii that held personal information on nearly 40,000 deferred donors. The crime happened on March 29 at the organization’s Dillingham Donor Center. […] Information stored in one of the laptops included donors’ names, birth…
Newborn DNA Registries Raise Privacy Concerns
I’ve included some news stories on DNA registries for newborns in the past, most recently involving a troubling situation in Texas. Here’s an overview of some of the controversies surrounding such databases, from Sarah McIntosh: Parents are expressing outrage after discovering through recent news reports that their newborns’ DNA has been stored or even turned…
Political Insider Delusions, the Legislature and an implanted microchip
Jim Galloway writes: We often say that insanity reigns at the state Capitol. But when we do, we do not literally accuse the people inside of letting their grip on reality slip. We simply mean that our ability to fathom their motives, or their ability to express them, has fallen short. Referring to a politician…
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Charges Belarusian Creator of International Identity Theft Website
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Joseph M. Demarest, Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the FBI, announced today the unsealing of an indictment against Dmitry M. Naskovets—creator and operator of CallService.biz, an online business that assisted over 2,000 identity thieves in over…