At a time when concerns about the privacy and security of electronic health records are a hot topic and the issue of private vs. public health insurance is making the front pages, a lawsuit filed by a former Kaiser employee alleges that Kaiser knowingly and repeatedly violated HIPAA, exposed millions of members to identity theft, and ripped members off by not keeping track of deductibles and co-payments.
A whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former employee against Kaiser in Los Angeles County Superior Court names Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (KFHP), KP Program Group, and Robb Munson, Vice-President of Health Plan Service and Administration for KFHP as defendants. The plaintiff is John Denning, a former Senior Enterprise Architect and Director of Claims for Northern California.
Allegations of Unfair and/or Illegal Business Practices
According to the complaint, a copy of which was obtained by this site, Kaiser’s practices have exposed millions of members to identity theft and medical fraud, and have likely cost Kaiser members millions of dollars in overcharges on deductibles and other out-of-pocket patient expenses on insurance products that “were illegal or improperly administered.”
Continue reading 'Whistleblower lawsuit against Kaiser Foundation Health Plan (update 2)'»
Breaches, HIPAA, News, Security, U.S. breaches
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HIPAA, John Denning, Kaiser Permanente, KP lawsuit, privacy, Security, whistleblower
Craig Schneider reports:
The FBI is investigating the theft of medical records of patients at Grady Memorial Hospital, officials said Friday.
Grady spokeswoman Denise Simpson provided few details on the thefts that were discovered late Thursday. She said it remains unknown how many patient records were stolen, which patients were affected or how the records were stolen.
Grady officials do not at this point believe the records contained patients’ Social Security numbers or financial information such as credit card numbers, but Simpson emphasized that investigators are only starting their inquiry.
Simpson did not identify either the vendor or subcontractor.
Full story – AJC
Tony Collins writes in ComputerWeekly:
The Sun has reported on a potential security breach with the “Choose and Book” system – part of the NHS’s National Programme for IT [NPfIT] – at a GP practice at Essex.
The paper has an editorial piece about the potential breach under the headline “Data Dunces”.
The Sun reports that crooks may have accessed patient records. It said that a security card flaw has left the system open to abuse for two years. Sensitive medical details, addresses and National Insurance numbers of every patient in the country could have been seen by anyone in a GP surgery or hospital without using the special swipe card.
Read more in The Sun
Glenn Nyback of the Staten Island Advance reports:
As tens of thousands of Staten Island University Hospital patients seethe over the decision by hospital administrators to wait four months before informing them that a computer containing their personal information was stolen, SIUH’s chief executive conceded officials could have handled the situation differently.
The hospital only 10 days ago began informing 88,000 patients whose names, Social Security and health insurance numbers were included on a password-protected desktop computer stolen from the hospital’s Rosebank billing office in December.
[...]
What irks Ms. Bertoldo most, however, isn’t the possibility of her Social Security and health insurance information being sold to strangers, but that she found out from a newspaper story rather than from the hospital.
Full story – Staten Island Advance
Catharyn Campbell reports:
Some customers are worried about their personal information after a local day care went out of business and left their files behind. The bank foreclosed on the property in December, and earlier this week someone took items from the former business.
“About a year ago some lady took over that nursery. It was called Big Momma’s or something like that. It didn’t last long,” said neighbor Richard Reeves.
… On Thursday, there was a basket of baby dolls, books, toys and papers scattered all over the property.
Customer files were also laying in the yard, which included names, phone numbers, addresses, Social Security numbers and extensive medical records.
Full story – WSMV
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