News Room

Saskatchewan’s privacy commissioner released a report about health records ending up dumpsters and the good news is that it’s happening less often

By Barb Pacholik, Leader-Post REGINA — While Saskatchewan’s privacy commissioner has recently released yet another report about health records ending up in a dumpster, the good news is that it’s happening far less often, says a spokesperson. “One of the most positive developments that we’ve seen over time is these reported incidents to our office […]

MNsure officials are forced to explain a data breach at the Capitol

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A terminated MNsure employee who was blamed for a data security breach lead to the grilling of officials who sat before the Legislature’s Oversight Committee on Tuesday morning. An employee described by The Associated Press as a “broker-coordinator” with a starting salary of $62,000 a year was terminated on Friday. The […]

Ready or not, enforcement of the new HIPAA rules starts today

Washington’s enforcement of major changes to patient privacy rules starts this week, but many area doctors may not be ready. The new HIPAA “mega rule,” as it’s sometimes called, took effect in March and modifies health-care privacy and security requirements. Fast forward 6 months, when enforcement kicks in. “I’ve had experiences of meeting with physician […]

A former Loyola University employee is charged with a felony after stealing a patient’s identity

Author Name Patrick Ouellette A former Loyola University Medical Center nurse, Katrina R. Spears, was charged with felony identity theft on Sept. 8 after stealing a Loyola patient’s identity and heavily affecting her credit. Riverside, Illinois police, according to chicago.cbslocal.com, revealed that Spears had opened several credit accounts in a Riverside patient’s name and purchased […]

The trust that runs Queen’s Hospital has seen staff data breaches almost double in the past year

The trust that runs Queen’s Hospital has seen data breaches by staff almost double in the past year. Med Buck, who chaired health watchdog Havering LINk before it was dissolvedMed Buck, who chaired health watchdog Havering LINk before it was dissolved Breaches included healthcare records left unattended, documentation lost or found and a breach of […]

Minnesota officials launched an investigation of a data breach of the state’s health insurance exchange

Written by Helen Gregg Minnesota officials have begun an investigation into a data breach at MNsure, the state’s health insurance exchange, according to a Minnesota Public Radio report. The breach occurred when an MNsure employee accidentally sent 2,400 insurance agents’ information to another broker, according to the report. Governor Mark Dayton downplayed the incident as […]

Medical identity theft “is an insidious crime and the consequences can be deadly”

Imagine being rushed to the hospital with appendicitis, but your medical chart – unbeknownst to you – shows that your appendix has already been removed. That confusion could delay treatment. What if your blood type is different from what’s in your medical file? Or maybe you have severe drug allergies, but the records have been […]

A Ponemon Institute survey finds medical identity theft is up and has affected 1.84 million people in the U.S. in 2013

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. and WASHINGTON, Sept. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — Medical identity theft is a national healthcare issue with life-threatening and hefty financial consequences. According to the 2013 Survey on Medical Identity Theft conducted by Ponemon Institute, medical identity theft and “family fraud” are on the rise; with the number of victims affected by medical […]

A survey reveals business associates don’t understand their responsibilities for the new HIPAA rule and even fewer are compliant

DENVER — Covered entities and business associates in the healthcare industry have until September 23, 2013 to become compliant with the final HIPAA Omnibus Rule that took effect in March. Coalfire, an independent information technology Governance, Risk and Compliance (IT GRC) firm, today released findings from a survey that shows business associates have limited understanding […]

The FTC claims an Atlanta medical lab didn’t do enough to protect its records, resulting in the leak of SSNs of 9,000 consumers

By ANNE FLAHERTY Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) – The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday accused a small Atlanta-based medical lab that specializes in cancer detection of not doing enough to protect its patients’ online records, resulting in the leak of Social Security numbers and birth dates of more than 9,000 consumers. The complaint against LabMD […]