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By Dissent, May 15, 2012

Jim McElhatton reports that Howard University Hospital has disclosed another data breach that appears to be unrelated to the theft of a contractor’s laptop reported in March.

Charging documents filed in federal court in Washington this week say Laurie Napper, a technician in the surgery department, sold patients’ names, addresses, dates of birth and Medicare numbers from August 2010 until December 2011.

Read more on Washington Times, although much of the report is about the laptop incident and not the newest revelation.
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Related: Information in United States of America v. Napper, Case 1:12-cr-00128-CKK

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By Dissent, May 14, 2012

From WLS in Illinois:

A Northwestern Memorial Hospital employee has been charged with stealing the identity of patients to pay off her personal bills.

Shatina Golden, 35, of south suburban Matteson was charged Monday with one count each of aggravated identity theft and identity theft, according to the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office. Golden had worked at the hospital the past four years.

Last week, police executed a search warrant at Godlen’s home and found paperwork with the personal information of more than 50 Northwestern patients, a release from the state’s attorneys office said. The paperwork included birthdates, Social Security numbers and credit card numbers.

Read more on WLS.

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By Dissent, May 12, 2012

Melanie Evans reports:

In comments to U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Accretive Health rejected a recent report that suggested the healthcare billing and collection company violated emergency-room access, patient privacy and debt collection laws.

Accretive’s 29-page comment letter (PDF) came in response to questions from the senator following a highly critical report from Minnesota’s attorney general on Accretive’s business practices. The report said Accretive employees, under contract for Fairview Health Services, sought payment from emergency room and hospital patients before or as they sought care.

Read more on Modern Healthcare.   The data breach part of their response begins on p. 24 of Accretive’s letter.

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By Dissent, May 9, 2012

A piece from Dentistry.co.uk caught my eye this morning:

Dentists are warned that the law offers little or no protection from patients covertly recording consultations.

Patients are within their rights to record consultations and could use the information obtained to challenge their dentist’s actions.

‘Dentists would be cautioned against covertly recording patients’

The increasing use of smart phones makes it easier for patients wishing to secretly record a dental appointment and UK-wide dental defence organisation MDDUS advises dentists to keep clear, comprehensive and accurate records of consultations so they can justify their actions in court if necessary.

MDDUS dental adviser Rachael Bell said: ‘A dentist might think that a patient would require their permission to record a consultation and that any recording made covertly was illegal.’

‘However, this is not the case. When a patient seeks a consultation with a dentist, the information being processed is almost exclusively relating to the patient. Under the Data Protection Act, that data is therefore personal to the patient. By recording it, that patient is merely viewed as processing their own data.’

Read more on Dentistry.co.uk.

Is that also true in the U.S.?  In at least some cases, the answer appears to be yes.

Depending on your motivation for recording a consultation, it’s usually advisable to just ask or inform the doctor that you want to record or will be recording. Sometimes there are very good reasons to record that have nothing to do with litigation or distrust.  As one example, I always recommended that one particular patient tell all of his doctors that he would be recording his appointments with them. His memory was so severely impaired that recording the consultations enabled him to go home and review the tape as many times as he needed to so that he could follow through on their advice or so that he could remember their answers to questions he asked them.  Similarly, if you have an elderly parent who may get forgetful when feeling stressed, having a recording of the doctor’s advice to them may be very helpful in assisting them with treatment compliance.

Bottom line: if your intentions are care-related, try talking with the doctor about recording instead of doing it covertly.  And if your intentions are litigious, well, talk to a lawyer.

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By Dissent, May 8, 2012

John Perera reports:

A hospital in northwest Harris County is warning 741 patients that their personal health information was compromised by a former employee.

Several patients at IntraCare North Hospital have reported false income tax returns were filed using their personal information, hospital spokesman John Redd said.

That ex-employee was an intake coordinator at the hospital from March 15 to Aug. 18, 2011. She had access to patients’ personal information before she was fired. The hospital didn’t find out about the security breach until April 18 [of this year].

If this was access to paper records, then how do you prevent this kind of breach?

Read more on My Fox Houston.