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Ultimately, your first line of defense rests with your doctor, though, says Peel. To thwart breaches, pepper your doctor with questions. How will my data be transmitted? Will it be encrypted? For assistance, you can also download a question form at Patientprivacyrights.org.

privacy security Breach Risk health records thieves

in the past two years, the Office of Civil Rights has reported that 116 data breaches of 500 records or more were the direct result of the loss or theft of a mobile device and led to the exposure of the personal health information of 1.9 million patients

health privacy security mobile data

The investigation began in 2009 after complaints were filed on behalf of two celebrity patients, alleging that employees at UCLAHS repeatedly viewed their electronic protected health information, as well as other patients, without permission.

UCLA health HIPAA

"This is not quite 'Dick and Jane,' but it's pretty close," surgeon Dennis O'Leary declared in a 2004 interview about the "universal protocol" to prevent wrong-site surgery. These rules require preoperative verification of important details, marking of the surgical site and a timeout to confirm everything just before the procedure starts.

Kaiser wrong patient body part health

“Congress and federal officials have foisted the electronic medical record system on citizens without their consent,” she continued. “Citizens must now demand that the so-called HIPAA Privacy Rule require that patients receive a complete and comprehensive accounting of who looked at and used their private information.”

changes health insurance minnesota privacy rule

"In Search of Excellence" and "Built to Last" are two of the most famous business books ever written, best-selling examinations of the elements necessary for business success. But by 2006, 20% of the 61 companies studied in the two books were out of business, nearly half were struggling and just a third were thriving. Since John Kotter published "Leading Change" in 1996, all the subsequent research confirms his finding that only a third of change programs in organizations succeed. And if they continue on their present trajectory, half of the S&P 500 companies won't still be on the list by 2020.

organizational health kotter change

Ford Motor Co. recently demonstrated projects that use SYNC technology to create wireless communication between the car and remote health devices and monitors.

auto companies mobile health

The use of home health care for chronically ill patients after they leave the hospital can reduce Medicare spending and readmissions, concludes a new study by Avalere Health, LLC.

Discharging Medicare beneficiaries with diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or congestive heart failure to their homes resulted in about 20,426 fewer hospital readmissions than if they had received other post-acute care services. Those fewer readmissions saved Medicare nearly $670 million from October 2006 through September 2009, according to the study.

after health costs

"While we've long known that today's patients rely heavily on the Internet for health information, a new survey from the National Research Corp. gets more granular. In particular, the group's survey of nearly 23,000 U.S. residents reveals that 41 percent of patients get medical content from social media sites. Out of this group, most (94 percent) of them turn to--you guessed it--Facebook."

facebook health

"The federal list of major health information breaches that have occurred since September 2009 included 249 incidents affecting nearly 8.3 million individuals as of Tuesday. But the total number affected could surpass 10 million once details about the recent Health Net breach are added. "

Privacy health breach

"Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs will
attend a meeting in California on Thursday with President Barack Obama, a source
familiar with the meeting said.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Google Inc Chief Executive Eric Schmidt
will also attend the meeting, the source told Reuters.

The timing of the meeting coincides with a report in the National Enquirer
with pictures purporting to be of a frail Jobs arriving at the Stanford Cancer
Center. The report is unverified.

The report cites doctors, who are not treating Jobs, saying he has six weeks
to live based on the photos. Shares of Apple slipped 1 percent.

Jobs, a pancreatic cancer survivor, stepped away from Apple on medical leave
last month. It was the third time in seven years that Jobs has taken leave for
health-related reasons."

Apple Privacy Jobs Health

"Starting in 2006, the California Networks for
Electronic Health Record Adoption (CNEA) initiative has worked to speed adoption
and lower the cost of electronic health records (EHRs) in California's community
clinics and health centers. In August 2008, seven grantees representing four
models of EHR deployment were funded to accelerate the adoption of EHRs in the
safety net. In 2010, CHCF
began publishing
a series of tactically
oriented issue briefs that highlight lessons learned since the initiative began."

health electronic record Deployment

"The President’s Council of Scientific Advisors (PCAST) report on health care IT
points out that “A patient cannot make meaningful privacy choices unless he or
she understands the flows and uses of information and can therefore make
informed choices. That is not the reality today… While face­to­face
counseling on privacy choices should be available whenever choice is either
required by law, policy or practice, most patients will probably educate
themselves on the issues and make privacy choices through a web interface, where
they will also be able to change their choices at any time… An important point
is that, when patients have a meaningful opportunity to choose, a patient’s
choices will be persistent, that is, continuing until changed. Most patients
ideally will have elected privacy choices at a time when they are healthy and
competent. This is truer to the principal of informed consent than is a rushed
signature at thetime of a medical emergency, or when the patient’s physical or
mental competency is compromised"

Privacy health care

"Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bill that would provide medical care for firefighters and other responders to the September 11, 2001, attacks who developed illnesses from breathing toxic, dust-filled air.

The 57-42 procedural vote fell short of the 60 needed to advance major legislation in the 100-member chamber. The House of Representatives passed the bill in September and Senate action is needed to send it to President Barack Obama for his signature.

The $7.4 billion measure was one of a number of bills Senate Republicans have blocked as lawmakers push to complete their work for the year."

republicans block health 9_11 misplaced priorities

"Citigroup Inc. on Nov. 9 introduced the Citi Flu Care card, a one-time-use
Visa debit card the issuer says may dramatically reduce corporations’ cost to
provide flu shots and other vaccinations to employees."

health visa citi flu

"Nearly 59 million Americans went without health insurance coverage for at least
part of 2010, many of them with conditions or diseases that needed treatment,
federal health officials said on Tuesday."

health Insurance

"The Office of the National Coordinator has asked the public to comment about
privacy and security concerns associated with the use of electronic personal
health record systems and tools.

ONC also wants feedback on what consumers
expect when their health information is collected and used for personal health
records, according to an announcement Nov. 1.

ONC wants comments about these issues for a roundtable discussion on PHRs and
other emerging technologies it is convening in December.

PHRs will play an increasingly larger role as electronic health records and
meaningful use take root as methods to enable patients to access their medical
information and manage their health."

privacy health records roundtable

"Thomson Reuters has introduced a health information exchange platform that includes data analytics software and reporting functions.

The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based vendor is piloting the product with several states it will not identify. The platform's architecture uses a combination of federated and centralized models for handling data. Under a federated model, data simply is routed--collected and delivered, but not retained. But the platform also enables the retaining of selected data in a central data repository for analysis and reporting.

A "quality measures engine" codifies integrated data sets into discrete quality, compliance and financial measures to meet expected meaningful use reporting requirements, according to the vendor. Other tools support reporting for Medicare's Physician Quality Reporting Initiative and pay-for-performance programs.

A continuity of care viewer organizes patient data into episodes of care to provide real-time alerts of gaps in care. Some components are commercially available now with others during the second quarter of 2010."

health care Thomson Reuters health information exchange

"As the White House prepared to wrangle senators into spending $848 billion in the next decade on new healthcare initiatives, budget chief Peter Orszag shared the news that $54 billion of what the CMS spent last year was paid in error.

The figure could create the impression that if the bill payers get their act together, the federal government could fund much of its plans to expand health insurance coverage with savings wrung from Medicare and Medicaid. Orszag said President Barack Obama within days would issue an executive order that would make the problem more transparent to the public and hold top officials accountable for fixing it.

“We need to protect taxpayer dollars because every dollar that goes to the wrong recipient or in the wrong amount” is a dollar that isn’t available to achieve the goals of the given government program, Orszag said in a conference call with reporters. The erroneous healthcare payments amounted to more than half the government’s fiscal 2009 blunders, totaling $98 billion. The portion attributed to fee-for-service Medicare was $24.1 billion, or 7.8% of all payments during the period.

That’s more than double the rate reported for 2008, largely because of a stricter review approach adopted midyear. Meanwhile, the CMS calculated an unofficial error rate of 12.4%, or $35.4 billion, which represents an attempt to estimate what the stricter approach would yield if applied retroactively. The number is statistically squishy but will be the baseline for measuring improvement in fiscal 2010. "

health care CMS payment errors

"Lobbyists for the health industry are close to a victory over consumer groups in a dispute about when patients should be told their digital medical records have been lost, stolen or mishandled.

The tug-of-war over a little-known federal privacy rule--which has drawn in Congress, regulators and an array of interest groups--highlights the behind-the-scenes activity touched off by the government's effort to spend some $45 billion in economic stimulus funds to push medical data online. Federal regulators are working against tight deadlines to write all kinds of rules governing the digital system, one that the Obama administration hopes most health care providers will adopt in the next five years.

As with many Washington initiatives, the way the rules are written may have more of an effect on consumers than the original law passed by Congress. "

Privacy health industry