” Among the 61 patients whose records Jackson allegedly viewed in 2006 and 2007 were 33 celebrities, politicians and other well-known people, state officials have said. “
–Quote from article in The Los Angeles Times – April 9, 2008
Did this UCLA employee (which the article stated had worked at UCLA Medical Center since the age of 16 – or 33 years), ever complete HIPAA (Health Information Privacy & Protection Act training… a Federal requirement for any hospital personnel? This is a sad reflection on the vulnerability – and transparency – of patients’ health records. Lawsuits for the UCLA Medical Center may follow this disclosure.
Here are some pertinent links: HIPAA “Authorization Use & Disclosure” website. HHS has put up a website on “How to File a Complaint“.
World Privacy Forum has a great list of sources for further information on protecting medical and health information at their Medical Privacy Project page. Also of interest on this WPF page are press releases and PDF documents issued in 2008 which advise on 1) which specific privacy rights that HIPAA does (and does not) protect and Genetic Privacy.
Note: those links open up PDF documents so I didn’t include actual URLs in this post.
1 response so far ↓
creaky15 // April 17, 2008 at 12:36 AM
Also read an article entitled, “Warning on Storage of Health Records, published Apr 17 2008 in the New York Times at link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/business/17record.html?ex=1366084800&en=153163d15dcfb2fe&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss).
Creaky