Privacy and Security Law Blog : Privacy & Security Law Blog : Davis Wright Tremaine LLP : Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Portland and Anchorage Law Firm

Posted by Tom Jeffry

Last week, under pressure from privacy rights activists, Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy introduced an amendment to the Wired for Health Care Quality Act [S.1693].  Until then, this bill was nurtured along by proponents of health information networks and was poised to be “hotlined” for unanimous consent without debate in Congress.  

The proposed amendment uses language familiar to those of you who have read HIPAA.  Terms such as “protected health information” and “notice of privacy practices” appear in both the HIPAA regulations and the proposed amendment. However, the definitions are dramatically different.  For example, the proposed amendment to S. 1693 includes genetic and biometric information in the definition of protected health information and expands it to information collected or used by health researchers, schools and universities, and employers.  The scope of HIPAA was limited to those traditionally engaged in the delivery of health care such as providers and payers. Continue Reading...

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Posted by Thomas Jeffry

Intel CEO Paul Otellini was quoted recently in the  Financial Times attacking the healthcare industry as "the slowest moving industry in the world" because it was the least penetrated by IT. 

Mr. Otellini’s comments follow several post-mortem reports posted last week by Health Affairs  discussing the reasons for the demise of the Santa Barbara County Care Data Exchange (SBCCDE) last December. SBCCDE was considered a pioneer for community-based electronic health information exchange (HIE) also know as regional health information organization (RHIO). In principle, HIEs are intended to create a simple and secure way to electronically share patient data between health care providers, caregivers, and consumers.

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Posted by Thomas Jeffry

An interesting development from the American Medical Association is worth noting.

The AMA House of Delegates met in Chicago at the end of June where it received a report previously requested by that group’s governing body on the medical and ethical implications of the use of implantable radio frequency identification (RFID) microchips in humans. Use of RFID chips were approved for use in humans by the Food & Drug Administration in 2004. Similar versions of such chips are commonly used to tag pet dogs and cats for identification purposes. 

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Posted by Peerapong Tantamjarik

While not involving computer hackers, here's a story about an old-fashioned invasion of privacy. The Kansas City Star reported on September 28th that a University of Missouri hospital faces a class-action lawsuit after allegedly releasing confidential medical records for hundreds of patients to a company it hired to solicit business. The suit was filed earlier this year on behalf of approximately 800 patients with liver diseases, including hepatitis C. The complaint alleges that records were turned over by University Hospital's internal medicine chairman to a home health care provider dba Option Care, who then allegedly called the patients in an effort to sell them antiviral drugs and keep them in the hospital network. The Option Care nurse who contacted the patients using the list from the hospital stated that the calls were not for solicitation, but for patient safety.

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