Ebara Technologies, Inc. Employee Medical Benefit Plan has recently notified the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office that a break-in at one of their vendors resulted in the theft of computers that may have contained protected health information of former and current plan participants. From the description of the incident, it appears that the unnamed…
Preying on Patients
Kristen Gerencher of the Wall Street Journal reports: […] At Blue Shield of California, which has 3.3 million insured members, fraud investigators have seen about 10 medical identity theft cases over the last 18 months, said Michael Brandt, senior manager of the company’s special investigations in El Dorado Hills, Calif. The incidents so far have…
Reps. Barton, Dingell To Introduce Legislation That Aims To Spur Nationwide Adoption of Electronic Health Records
From the Kaiser Daily Health Report: House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair John Dingell (D-Mich.) and ranking member Joe Barton (R-Texas) on Tuesday plan to introduce a bill that would promote the adoption of a nationwide electronic health record system, CongressDaily reports. According to CongressDaily, the lawmakers last month released a draft of the…
Consumer Groups Defend Vermont Prescription Data Privacy Law
Vermont’s law restricting the sale of prescription drug information that identifies prescribers and patients for commercial marketing purposes does not restrict free speech and serves substantial governmental interests, according to a brief to be filed today by an American University Washington College of Law professor on behalf of AARP and organizations representing physicians, state legislatures,…
UK: Ambulance service loses details of nearly million people
Simon Johnson of Telegraph reports: A computer disk containing details of nearly a million people who dialled 999 has been lost, an ambulance service has admitted. The information was supposed to be couriered by TNT from Scotland to Manchester two weeks ago, but never arrived at its destination and a search has failed to find…
Microsoft, AT&T, Covisint Partner On Health Data Exchange
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee of InformationWeek reports: Through a new partnership between Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), AT&T (NYSE: T), and Compuware (NSDQ: CPWR) subsidiary Covisint, consumers who use Microsoft HealthVault tools to input and manage their personal health data via the Web can now share this information nationwide with physicians connected to the AT&T Healthcare Community Online…