Health Information Compliance Alert
TEMPORARY INSANITY?
A gentle zephyr swept hospital records all along a downtown street in Allentown, PA, and the temporary employee who allegedly scattered patients private medical information may have to face a tempest of liability under privacy laws. A temporary employee working for Easton Hospital in Allentown, PA is being held responsible for the dispersal of roughly 100 confidential medical records on a public street, according to The Morning Call. The employee, a 30-year-old Allentown woman, told a local police official she took the documents to her home Aug. 6 to organize them and planned to return them the following morning. Wilson police chief Richard Nace believes the woman became flustered after arguing with the person who was driving her to work, and she dropped the records as she left the car, The Morning Call reports. According to The Morning Call, whose office sits less than a block away from where the incident occurred, several patients whose medical information lay among those collected expressed dismay that their data was exposed in such a public venue. Some patients also worried that some people may use the documents for illicit purposes such as financial gain, since the data contained Social Security numbers. Nace is currently consulting with county, state and federal authorities to determine what, if any, criminal charges will be filed. State Health Department spokeswoman Amy Zuccoloto says her department will also join in the investigation.
Health Information Compliance Alert
- HIPAA Privacy:
PRIVACY RULE CHANGES WELCOMED, BUT SOME ISSUES STILL FUZZY
You can't please all the people all of the time, they say but the Department [...] - Medical Research:
LIMITED DATA SET WELL MET BY INDUSTRY
One of the Department of Health and Human Services amendments to the privacy rule has [...] - HIPAA Privacy:
PRIVACY GROUPS SPLIT OVER CONSENT REPEAL
Attention patients, health care providers and lawyers: Consent has left the building. Everyones talking about [...] - Litigation:
HHS SCORES VICTORY IN HIPAA PRIVACY CHALLENGE
A federal judge in South Carolina has shot down an effort by a coalition of [...] - HIPAA Training:
BRING COMPLIANCE INTO FOCUS
Compliance officers, providers and others for whom HIPAA training is a concern appear to be [...] - HIPAA Privacy:
HHS DELIVERS NEW PRIVACY RULE AND RELIEF TO COVERED ENTITIES
Drum roll, please In a final rule published in the Aug. 14 Federal Register, the [...] - Transactions:
GAO WEIGHS CODE SET OPTIONS
While the code sets the Department of Health and Human Services has adopted as Health [...] - Mitigation Tips:
STOP, DROP AND ROLL TO EXTINGUISH PRIVACY FIRES
Taking the time to develop procedures for staff to follow when they make a mistake [...] - Enforcement:
WHERE WILL THE AXE FALL?
While the Department of Health and Human Services only recently finalized the privacy rule, many [...] - HIPAA Privacy:
TEMPORARY INSANITY?
A gentle zephyr swept hospital records all along a downtown street in Allentown, PA, and [...] - Health Information News:
HAWKEYE STATE RAISES CONCERNS OVER MEDICAL PRIVACY
Should law enforcement officials be given access to private medical documents to help solve crime? [...]
