Archive for October, 2009

New data breach guidelines HHS and FTC

Healthcare providers and others handling sensitive patient data are now finding the stakes raised if they suffer a data breach because of a new law known as the "Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act," or HITECH Act....

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Data Breach in India – HIPAA

A recent Economic Times Report in India which reported a successful Sting operation by a UK agency in which some health related data was bought from a medical transcription company has evoked some predictable response in US. As could be expected, there are voices stating that the best way forward for Health Care Information Security is not to outsource

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AHA recommends “risk threshold” on HIPAA

The American Hospital Association is recommending that the HHS should raise that bar as to when patients need to be notified of breaches. This will reduce instances of needing to notify patients when their medical data may have been exposed, but will make it consistent with many per state requirements.

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Dr & Two Former Hopsital Employees Sentenced

Holland, Miller, and Griffin pleaded guilty on July 20, 2009 to misdemeanor violations of the health information privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) based on their accessing a patient’s records without any legitimate purpose....

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HIPAA changes : H1N1 epidemic

The HIPAA privacy rule can be modified during public health emergencies. Sanctions can be waived related to privacy practices including the requirement to be get clearance with a patient in order to speak to family members involved in that patient's care. This can apply during the emergency period for hospitals that are operating under a disaster protocol.

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160,000 patient files may have been exposed

Carolina Mammography Registry had a security breach in 2007. Patients did not give consent to be included in the registry.

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Medical records in the cloud

There is a big business in taking medical records stored on the Internet, masking patient identifying information and selling them to 3rd party providers.

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1,700 at Pitt County possibly compromised

USB flashdrive used to move patient data between different computer systems is missing.

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