Jason Roberson reports: A laptop computer containing limited health information on 100,000 patients was stolen from an employee’s car in September, Baylor Health Care System Inc. said Monday. A letter is being sent to the patients, including 7,400 patients whose Social Security numbers were stored on the computer. Baylor is offering a $1,000...
A former UCLA Medical Center employee has pleaded not guilty to charges that she sold information from Farrah Fawcett’s medical records to a celebrity gossip tabloid. U.S. attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek says Lawanda Jackson entered the plea at her arraignment Monday in U.S. District Court. Source – Associated Press
Pauline Tam reports: Criminals are exploiting lax security in government databases to assume false identities and take advantage of Canada’s health-care system, warns a leading expert in identity fraud. But such scams go largely unprosecuted because there is no concerted effort by government agencies to go after bogus health-care claimants, says former Edmonton police...
Simone Yates reports: AN INVESTIGATION has been launched after hundreds of personal medical documents were found dumped beside a canal between Barrowford and Foulridge. The confidential documents featured information about patients from across East Lancashire including names, addresses and whether they had HIV, syphillis or had suffered from a heart attack. Pendle Denture Centre,...
Michael Milstein reports: Personal information, including some Social Security numbers, of about 1,600 patients at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland was inadvertently posted on a public Web site, Portland VA officials said Saturday. The breach also involved patient information from other VA hospitals around the country, but Portland VA spokesman Mike...
John Moore reports: A review by the Department of Health and Human Service has found the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service wanting when it comes to oversight of health information security. HHS’ Office of the Inspector General issued a report Oct. 27 that finds CMS has fallen short of its charter to enforce...
Twenty hospital workers — nurses, admissions workers and patient relations staff — lost their jobs this week, accused of breaking federal privacy rules by accessing the medical records of the Jaguars’ Richard Collier. Two weeks after Collier — who was shot 14 times — was well enough to be discharged from Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center,...
Cost and security concerns about bringing health care record keeping into the 21st century through electronic health records (EHR)have led to a call for an effective regulatory and oversight system from a pair of Case Western Reserve University professors. “Electronic information can be illicitly accessed from anywhere and transmitted across the globe quickly, cheaply,...
Rong-Gong Lin II reports: The number of patients whose hospital records were improperly accessed by employees at the UCLA Hospital System has topped 1,000, state officials said Wednesday. Kathleen Billingsley, director of the California Department of Public Health’s Center for Healthcare Quality, said the records of 1,041 patients have been breached, up from 939...
SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER reports: The state has ended its investigation into privacy breaches at UCLA hospitals, where celebrities such as Britney Spears and Farrah Fawcett had their medical records illegally accessed by employees. Six state reports were released on the matter over the last several months—the last one Wednesday—detailing a widespread practice of workers...