Jun
28
Worried About HIPAA Privacy?
Filed Under HIPAA (General), HIPAA Compliance, HIPAA Enforcement, HIPAA Law, HIPAA News, HIPAA Privacy, HIPAA Regulation | Leave a Comment
While some are up in arms about the whole Rush Limbaugh Viagra privacy debacle, I am more interested in all the thefts that been going on. It seems to be a recurring story week after week.
Only recently the Federal Trade Commission had their own breach, which was due to someone stealing a laptop from an employees vehicle. A lot of these problems seem to be happening because employees have laptops and private files with millions of data on hundreds of thousands of people and no one is doing a thing about it.
I really would have thought that companies would take a look at what’s happening and start changing the way information is handled when it comes to employees taking it with them.
I would take a large guess that until some of the information stolen belongs to a celebrity or someone in Congress, not a damn thing is going to be done. If you are one of the people affected I guess they will sing you the tune of too bad, so sad.
Jun
21
Here We Go Again
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In Ohio, University officials have reportedly suspended two technology workers after hackers broke into school computers (for the fifth or sixth time) and stole more than 170,000 social security numbers.
This includes students and faculty alone and there have been almost 20 complaints of identity theft in recent months by both groups as well.
This is getting so out of hand. Either someone isn’t doing their jobs right in business and schools or software protection is way behind these hackers. It seems that every few days another report comes of tens or hundred thousands of personal information being stolen from one place.
The other thing could be that someone on the inside did at least a few of these but that doesn’t explain them all. I would be afraid to have my personal information anywhere, but due to the fact that you can go a company today and they can sell your information to 1,000 different people tomorrow there isn’t much hope of that happening.
Jun
21
Right To Know Rules
Filed Under HIPAA (General) | 1 Comment
In most States there is something called a Right To Know law and unfortunately it looks to be overruling the HIPAA. If you want your privacy protected someone can simply go right over you by using that law and people are only just noticing this.
How will this be fixed and how soon? Well considering the fact that no one took into account that the two laws can cancel each other out, I don’t think we should hold our breaths.
Jun
20
Was The Porn Worth It?
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A worker at Oregon Department of Revenue was busy surfing porn instead of working this week and a trojan snuck onto the computer and stole more than 2,200 taxper ID’s and other information.
Included with the identities were social security numbers, addresses and names that got into the hands of who knows who and who knows who they will sell it too. But I love how they say that no financial information was stolen by the keylogger. Excuse me, but in today’s technology age, with the three pieces of info they recieved that is enough for them to crop up in another state or even the same state and take your identity. You can find yourself getting a bill for 3 cars and a house. Yes, someone actually did that with a persons stolen identity.
I ask was it worth it because they cannot tell me that they allowed this person to keep his job? Not when a woman was fired from a Circle K gas station because she the store was robbed.
Jun
18
Once again a laptop with private information was stolen, this time from the home of a worker at ING U.S. Financial Services. This seems to be happening a lot lately, or it’s just being reported more now than it was in the past.
I would think that companies would take a hard look at their own businesses and try to fix the practice of workers taking home thousands or millions of data on employees or customers before it’s too late. But I suppose that would be to simple. After all any press is good press isn’t it?
Jun
14
Government investigators say that the VA information is still in danger after the theft a few weeks ago. Problems that allowed that breach is still not fix and won’t be fixed for sometime.
VA officials are accused of not monitoring what information employees had control of and what and where they took that information.
Over the years problems have been exposed and they were only fixed if they had no other choice and they were not fixed to the best ability that they could have been.
As we know things are only fixed after there is a major problem.
Jun
13
Times Change But Can Doctors?
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When implementing an EMR it seems that most doctors and medical staff don’t want to affect changes. Many feel like the system works and should be left just the way it is. The problem with that thinking is that everything around is and does change. If you don’t put plans up in advance you will find yourself falling behind and when it comes to patients and their health that is a very dangerous way to practice.
I think that medical staff need to get with the program and work around EMR. If you just throw up your hands and say this won’t work then yes it won’t work because you gave up on trying to fix the problem.
Jun
13
It seems that only after a major disaster happens that problems are then addressed and sometimes fixed. That is especially true in the world of security and HIPAA.
As director of technology for Kettering Medical Center Network, Burritt is in charge of the technology infrastructure for a group of five hospitals and 51 medical facilities in the Dayton, Ohio area, all within 40 miles of each other. The network supports some 10,000 users and 6,000 connected devices, ranging from servers to notebook computers and PDAs.
He estimates that if the network ever failed, it could cost his organization a million dollars a day.
Locking down the network can be especially tough for health-care organizations, with their typical mix of paper and electronic records, the need for long record retention, and the move to digital imaging. With the passage of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) security rule last April, protection of electronic records has been shoved to the forefront. (HIPAA’s privacy rule has been in effect for several years, depending on the size of the organization.)
Jun
12
Best of Niner Niner June ‘06
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Sreejith thinks that Snap is the future of Google.
Meanwhile over at Blogging Naked leafworks introduces us to sex magic Part I.
In Bookadoodle, Meg Stivison tells us about The Year of Pleasure, and the story of Shem Creek which left her giggling and sighing.
Boomer 2.0: Baby boomers want to dress just like us and get into the latest technology. If you can, then so can they.
Sony gives out free music and hey, Why was the NPS website shut down?
In Credit Cardenza, learn to protect your credit card, and don’t forget to give the tips to your one year old after he gets his own card.
Did you remember to get mommy this gorgeous polished rolo bracelet? Did you settle for something in the flowers and candy department? Or did you get her this Kodak EasyShare?
In Feed Money there was talk about the Google Traffic Diet while Tom Baurley gave us a guide to affiliate programs.
Sarah White posted a must-read to generation debt and hopefully that will keep you from falling into the pit of debt.
If you love playing games for money head on over to the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida but leave the gambling children at home.
Technology is coming to high heel near you so when your bored hopefully your flexible enough to watch the tv in your high heels and if criminals take notice show them your other shoes that come with high heel weaponry included.
Do you know if you medical records are being disclosed and do you understand your medical privacy?
Kathleen Milazzo asks the question: Could you be the next victim of diabetes? While also discussing seniors and their new drug plan.
You might own a coffee shop but don’t forget to offer tea because people love variety.
In Mortgage Updates you can learn how to toss out the middle man and offer a mortgage all by yourself.
If you’ve got the skills, you can learn how to build your own hydropower or get some ideas on building your own Mona Lisa.
If your in the mood to learn business, Sarah White takes a moment to let us in on her not so secret side biz.
There is a lot to learn if you want a healthy living and you can start with the dangers of diabetes before moving on to the healthy alternative of corn and don’t forget some great tasting healthy and low calorie recipes.
In On Movies, Meg Stivison refused to let the problem of finding english language movies stop her from giving a great review for the movie “The Prince and Me 2″.
Always keep an eye out for Ebay email fraud but keep the other eye out on ways you can sell stuff on Ebay for other people.
Rss Micro is the new kid in town when it comes to RSS search engines, while there pull up a search about getting listed with Yahoo.
The Diet Logs: If violent diarrhea isn’t something you’d like to have, remember to avoid white kidney beans, or at least learn how to cook them correctly.
If you live the Single Life try to find your relationship chemistry but do avoid the 7 types of jealousy.
Meg Stivison is pretty excited about the changes made to Wow, meanwhile Tom Baurley reminds us that we Don’t Know Jack and there is the Desperate Housewives video game. I still don’t know why they made it.
In Vegas Revealed, we see a couple that are endangered plus a grandmother won the biggest slots jackpot ever.
Meg Stivison is still not over the staring thing, I mean the grocery store? People keep an eye on your shopping carts. And if your going to wander the Earth don’t forget to take a pit stop at Aquariam of the America’s. Should be a sight to behold.
Jun
11
Identity theft happens every day and it is getting more abundant by the minute. But there is another identity theft that is little known and hardly talked about and you can lose more than your money, you can also lose your life.
Medical identity theft is being commited throughout hospitals as we speak and what these criminals do is use your information the way they would for anything else. They run up massive hospital bills at multiple hospitals and medical centers.
The worst part is that under your name and social security number is their medical history, so you can be in a car accident be taken to the hospital and get injected with medication that you are deathly allergic too because it was not in their/your file.
Another problem is that there is no clear way to resolve the issue or even demand that your medical history be corrected. There are no laws and the medical community is under no liability to make sure that your info is changed.
Jun
11
VA Recalls Work Laptops
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In a very smart decision the Veterans Affairs (VA) has decided to recall the laptops that workers are allowed to take home with them after one was stolen. A little late in my opinion because this seems to happen a lot and I feel that only after this big one has happened we are now hearing more about it because the news channels deem it worthy to show a pattern?
Jun
11
In one of the worst cases of identity theft that I have heard so far, a woman named Audra Schmierer was a stay at home mom for six years and now that her little boy is ready for school she is ready to get back to work.
After applying to a temp agency she was called back hours later to have the agency tell her that she already applied. When she went to apply to a tech company they told her that she already works there.
She went on to give the employers her driver’s license, passport, social security card, birth certificate and everything else needed to prove her identity only to be asked the question; “How can we be sure you are who you say you are? The other people can have the same documents to prove that they are Audra Schmierer.
That is a good point. A good forger can do just about anything and unfortunately we live and die by the social security number.
Mrs. Schmierer has learned that more than 200 illegal aliens all over the United States are getting jobs using her social security number.
A year ago she recieved a bill from the IRS they wanted $15, 813 in back taxes from her, because someone in Texas using her social was not nice enough to pay their taxes so she was left holding the bag, so to speak. I said Texas, yet Audra lives in California and yet she still can’t get help from the government considering she lives in one place yet has the superhuman ability to work in a dozen states all at once.
After tracking down the illegal immigrant in Texas via the fake tax return, the MAN, yes man, told her he bought her information including social and green card from a flea market of all places.
This woman’s life is a nightmare right now. Not only was she detained by custom officials when she came back from a business trip with her husband, but she was also given another bill by the IRS, for $1 Million Dollars. As if that isn’t enough, after working 14 years of her life, her social security account sits at a $0 balance, so she has nothing to fall back on once she retires.
In the recent months she spends her days trying to get help and fix this problem but IRS sends her to Social Security and they send her right back to the IRS, so it’s an endless loop, add to that she has contacted more than 35 employers but they pretty much won’t do anything even though they are now aware of the crimes their so called employees have commited because illegal alien equals cheap labor.
The only good thing so far in the last year is that the IRS have cancelled her $1 million bill. Although she can’t exactly jump up and down considering that it wasn’t her tab to begin with.
Senators have proven they could give a crap when John Ensign brought her case to them and yet they still approved giving benefits to illegal aliens using stolen identities.
I feel very bad for Audra Schmierer, she is living in a “free country” which apparently means it’s also free to commit the felony act of stealing identities and getting away with it, while the victim suffers. She cannot dare to go and buy a house, and even getting a job would a tough task at the moment and well into the future. Our lives revolve around files that the government, businesses and credit companies keep on us and hers is full of black marks right now, through no fault of her own.
All I can say is good luck and hopefully her story being on CNN will get someone big in her corner, otherwise she is well on her own.
Jun
4
Once again laptops with people’s personal information has been stolen. This time from a business in Ohio. One of the laptops contained personal data of more than 72,000 medicaid recipients.
This seems to be a growing problem lately. People stealing electronics that is holding information on sometimes millions of consumers. And people do need to be worried because we have to show or give our information to many businesses.
You go to blockbuster to sign up for a membership card and they want your social security number. You give your debit or credit card to store clerks to check and scan and you don’t know what they are doing with it. We can be as careful as possible but the end result is that our information leaves our hands many times a day.
Jun
4
No Fine In HIPAA
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It has been little over three years since Americans recieved laws for their medical privacy and in that time there has been over 19, 420 complaints against individuals and companies alike.
The problem is despite all of these laws there has not been one person fined for anything. And only two criminal cases were prosecuted. So it makes you wonder what is the point of the laws, if no one is being punished for breaking them?