September 13, 2013 John DeGaspari
blog
Identity theft is a serious crime that can destroy the credit rating of victims and take years to set straight. A growing subset of the crime is medical identity theft, the subject of 2013 Survey on Medical Identity Theft, a report released by the Ponemon Institute this week; all of the survey’s respondents have experienced some form of medical identity theft.
September 11, 2013 John DeGaspari
article
Medical identity fraud has increased nearly 20 percent compared to the year before in the U.S., affecting an estimated 1.84 victims and having a total out-of-pocket medical costs incurred by medical identity theft victims to be $12.3 billion. Those are takeaways of the 2013 Survey on Medical Identity Theft, an annual survey now in its fourth year, which was released yesterday by the Ponemon Institute LLC, Traverse City, Mich., and sponsored by Portland, Ore.-base ID Experts. The report’s release roughly coincided with the launch (on August 29) of the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance (MIFA), an industry group formed to raise public awareness and to come up with potential ways to address the medical identity theft.
September 9, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
With the updated version of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) going into effect on Sept. 23, the American Medical Association (AMA) is throwing a life line to its members with a toolkit that will aim to help physicians navigate the revisions of the federal privacy and security rules.
September 9, 2013 Gabriel Perna
blog
Compliance for the HIPAA Omnibus Rule is fast approaching and the provisions surrounding the relationship between covered entities and business associates have been a hot topic and for many health IT leaders, a bit of a mystery. In a recent talk I had with Mac McMillan, I tried to understand why this was the case.
September 6, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
A new study from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS) has looked at the relationship between health information laws and health system improvements for children and adolescents under Medicaid's Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit.
September 4, 2013 Gabriel Perna
article
Sept. 23, the compliance deadline for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Omnibus Rule, is getting closer and closer. In this Healthcare Informatics podcast, our health IT privacy guru, Mac McMillan, goes into detail about what providers should know when it comes to complying with the regulatory measure.
August 29, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
blog
When thinking about the word ‘hospital,’ violence inside the building might not be at the forefront of your mind. But ER violence is becoming a significant issue in health systems around the country. Thankfully, with the help of technology, prevention of violence in hospitals is possible.
August 29, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
news
Approximately 600 patients at UT Physicians, the medical group practice of The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) Medical School, have been notified that some of their health information has been compromised after an unencrypted laptop was discovered missing on Aug. 2 from a locked closet in a UT Physicians orthopedic clinic.
August 26, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
Advocate Medical Group (AMG), part of the not-for-profit Downers Grove, Ill.-based integrated healthcare network, Advocate Health Care, had one of its administrative offices robbed in July, and computers with protected health information (PHI) were taken.
August 22, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
article
Too often in health systems, emergency room (ER) violence gets overlooked or is under reported. While the matter has gotten the attention of several states’ lawmakers, it remains a problem. Recently, Beaumont Health system turned to technology to help combat the violent behavior.
August 21, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
news
The non-profit Center for Internet Security (CIS) has announced a new initiative to help bolster the protection of Internet-enabled medical devices from cyber attacks. CIS is working with medical device manufacturers, healthcare facilities, and cyber security experts to develop new security benchmarks.
August 21, 2013 David Raths
news
Imagine going to the doctor’s office for a checkup and finding procedures or prescriptions in your medical record that were a surprise to you. Just as with financial identity theft, an increasing number of Americans are finding themselves the victims of medical identity fraud, as thieves steal their health-insurance number, Social Security number and other personal information and resell them on the black market for use by other people.