31 Jul 2010 The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reports all breaches affecting more than 500 individuals reported by covered entities. This past week, HHS added a new report to their listing: Medina County OB/GYN Associates in Ohio reported that on June 13, the paper records of 1200 patients were improperly disposed of. There is no [...]
31 Jul 2010 Another follow-up on a previously noted breach, although in this case, our first awareness of the breach was due to its report on HHS’s web site. HHS’s logs indicate that the theft of the computer was reported to HHS on March 4, 2010. From KVOA: The Center for Neurosciences has made contact with almost all [...]
31 Jul 2010 Amanda Chan follows up on a breach reported in June: The Charlotte psychologist whose patient records were discovered at a county recycling facility last month contacted 1,590 of his patients via letter to inform them of the incident on Friday, his lawyer said. Ervin Batchelor, owner of Carolina Center for Development and Rehabilitation, had his [...]
30 Jul 2010 George Richert reports: Confidential medical records were scattered all over a busy intersection. Some of the documents even list social security numbers. Hundreds of people saw the mess in North Tonawanda, but a News 4 viewer who started picking up the papers alerted us to what was on them: doctors’ social security numbers. [...] A [...]
30 Jul 2010 Montefiore Medical Center in New York has experienced two computer thefts in recent months. Although neither incident appears on HHS’s web site of reported breaches as of the time of this posting, a statement on Montefiore Medical Center‘s web site indicates that both thefts involved computers containing sensitive personal and medical information of patients and [...]
30 Jul 2010 From the Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital‘s web sites: On May 13, 2010, a physician from Baylor College of Medicine and affiliated with Texas Children’s Hospital had his password-protected laptop stolen from an office at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas. Electronic files on the laptop contained demographic and clinical information of [...]
29 Jul 2010 From HHS’s web site: The Interim Final Rule for Breach Notification for Unsecured Protected Health Information, issued pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, was published in the Federal Register on August 24, 2009, and became effective on September 23, 2009. During the 60-day public comment period on the [...]
28 Jul 2010 Courthouse News reports: Ambulance workers snapped a picture of a patient riding in the back of an ambulance and posted the photo on Facebook, the patient claims in St. Joseph Circuit Court in Indiana. A copy of the complaint can be found here.
27 Jul 2010 See the companion press release from the FTC in a previous post. Rite Aid Corporation and its 40 affiliated entities (RAC) have agreed to pay $1 million to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced today. [...]
27 Jul 2010 The following is the FTC’s press release. In the next post, I’ll publish HHS’s press release on their settlement with Rite Aid. Rite Aid Corporation has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it failed to protect the sensitive financial and medical information of its customers and employees, in violation of federal law. In [...]* RSS Newsfeeds compiled by pogowasright.org, used with permission.
