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In a recent guest post on John Halamka’s blog, Fabienne Bourgeois, MD, of Children’s Hospital Boston analyzed some privacy concerns and roadblocks for adolescent personal health record (PHR) interactions while detailing Children’s approach to patient portals. The subject of patient privacy and more »
Pitting public health and well-being against patient confidentiality is nothing new in the healthcare industry and won’t die down anytime soon, but the ongoing debate has been magnified of late in Boston. The Boston Public Health Commission recently received criticism more »
Pursuant to a law in North Carolina, the Identity Theft Protection Act of 2005, businesses or government agencies are required to report details about security breaches to the state’s Attorney General’s Office. Editors from HealthITSecurity.com have acquired a copy of the North more »
Effective in July, CVS drug stores will no longer use patient prescription drug records for the purpose of sending patient pharmaceutical-paid refill notices. The organization’s argument for doing so revolves around new HIPAA omnibus provisions that restrict how third-party organizations more »
The sending of three emails including personally identifiable information of patients between October 2012 and February 2013 has led the Regional Medical Center in Memphis (the MED) to report a health data breach, according to a public notice issued by more »
BOSTON – One conundrum that healthcare faces while it tries to create and adopt best-of-breed technologies that can make a clinician’s job more efficient while making data more transparent to patients is that these patients double as consumers. They’re used more »
A theft of tens of thousands of dollars in the form computer equipment from a city office in Chicago may have exposed personally identifiable information (PII) or protected health information (PHI) to authorized access or abuse. According to a Chicago more »
BOSTON – Healthcare organizations are undoubtedly moving toward using large data sets to learn more about patients and become more efficient in patient care. Many are part of health information exchanges (HIEs) or accountable care organizations (ACOs) as part of more »
More than 17,000 patients at the Raleigh Orthopaedic Clinic are potential victims of a health data breach as a result of a third-party vendor’s crooked activities, according to an announcement from the healthcare organization. The clinic has not mentioned the more »
After months of working with stakeholders to develop conditions for trust exchange, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has finally released its framework for governing for trusted health information exchange, the Governance Framework for Trusted more »
The move away from stationary toward ubiquitous computing (i.e., desktop to mobile) is leading many healthcare organizations to adopt a new approach to safeguarding the protected health information (PHI). This reality only serves to exacerbate a reality in health IT: more »
The process of sharing protected health information (PHI) is wrought with many challenges. Entities covered under HIPAA and its recent update in the omnibus rule have the legal responsibility to safeguard PHI by putting the right policies, procedures, and agreements more »
A new case study published by the Commonwealth Fund demonstrates how the Colorado Beacon Consortium (CBC), one of the 17 communities selected by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) through its Beacon Community Program, handles more »
Senators John Thune (R-S.D.), Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) want a healthcare IT do-over in the U.S. The group released a white paper titled REBOOT: Re-examining the Strategies Needed more »
Richard Faircloth has brought a class action lawsuit against Adventist Health System/Sunbelt, Inc. for violating the privacy rights of other patients at the Florida hospital, according to court documents acquired by Law360. Faircloth, a former patient of the hospital, filed more »
Part of the Obama administration’s proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 budget was the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed budget and a large area of concentration was on health information privacy and security. The requested Office of the National more »
It’s an important time for the Massachusetts state HIE (MassHIWay), as it numbers are growing and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) will start sending 50,000 patient encounter records per week over the next few weeks. BIDMC will send these more »
In a proposed rule similar to another presented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is proposing to extend the exception for donors of electronic health record (EHR) systems (i.e., safe more »
How healthcare providers and vendors that are part of a health information exchange (HIE) should be segmenting and securing sensitive information, such as mental health data, sexually transmitted disease (STD) information or drug/alcohol abuse history, remains somewhat ambiguous for many more »
A federal grand jury in Savannah, Ga., has handed down six indictments April 2 to 12 defendants charged with filing fraudulent tax returns based on protected health information (PHI) from stolen medical records, various news outlets are reporting. Information about more »
“Who owns patient health information?” is a question increasingly asked of healthcare organizations and providers as well as health IT professionals as providers increasingly adopt EHR systems and participate in health information exchange (HIE) directly with other providers or indirectly more »
The healthcare industry is showing a growing interest in the potential of big data and healthcare analytics to improve patient outcomes and the business of providing high-quality at a manageable price. At the same time that big data is expected more »
The Department of Health & Human Services Office for Civil Rights is preparing to transition to a permanent audit program, building off of the HIPAA audits that took place in 2012. According to a notice in the Federal Register, the more »
The case brought against Google by 38 states for the company’s illegal capturing of private information reached a settlement this week, according to reports from The New York Times and Bloomberg. The settlement comprises $7-million fine as well as an more »
NEW ORLEANS — While identity federation may be on the back burner for some healthcare organizations, Jennifer Nowell, Director of Symantec’s Federal Healthcare and Government division, said at HIMSS13 that she believes it will play a large role in the more »
