UMass Memorial Medical Center, Inc., and UMass Memorial Medical Group, Inc. (collectively, UMass) has agreed to pay $230,000 to settle claims alleging that that they violated the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), and various other state patient privacy laws.
Category: Privacy
NTIA Seeks Comment on Federal Consumer Data Privacy Approach
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) issued a Notice seeking comments on a proposed federal consumer data privacy approach. In a parallel effort, the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology is developing a voluntary privacy framework to help organizations manage risk.
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The Devil is in the Definitions for Federal Consumer Data Privacy Safeguards
The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing “Examining Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy” on September 26, which included testimony from tech industry executives.
Senator John Thune’s opening statement noted that with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have put the issue of consumer data privacy squarely on the Congress’s doorstep. “The question is no longer whether we need a federal law to protect consumers’ privacy,” he said. “The question is what shape that law should take.”
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Three Separate OCR Settlements Resulting from Hospital Failures to Obtain Patient Authorization for Use of Protected Health Information Before Filming Television Docuseries
The Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced three separate settlements with Boston Medical Center (BMC), Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), respectively, over potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule totaling $999,000. According to the settlements, the potential violations were the result of the alleged disclosure of patient protected health information (PHI) to ABC News employees during the production and filming of the docuseries called “Save My Life: Boston Trauma,” at each hospital.
Enough of the Patchwork: Tech Industry Group Calls for a National Privacy Framework
The Internet Association (IA), a group of 40 major internet and technology firms, called for the establishment of a national privacy framework anchored by six privacy principles on Wednesday. In its press release announcing the principles, the IA indicated its support for the American approach to federal privacy legislation that is “consistent nationwide, proportional, flexible, and encourages companies to act as good stewards of the personal information provided to them by individuals.”
Security Recommendations for Mobile Health Apps
Expanded use of Electronic Health Records (EHRs) is an integral component of the ongoing modernization of the U.S. health care system through digitalization. Among the anticipated advantages of using EHRs are improvements in patient care (e.g., through faster access to relevant information and consequently improved care coordination), increased patient engagement, as well as reduction of medical errors and cost savings. On the other hand, implementing EHRs in a sustainable and legally compliant way requires upfront investment in hardware, software, training, workflow restructuring, as well as management of risks unique to electronic records, such as vulnerability to malicious interference. When EHRs are combined with mobile platforms, the cybersecurity risks multiply. Addressing this latest challenge can be daunting, both for medical practices and EHR product providers.
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