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Intermountain Healthcare has fired two employees at Cottonwood Hospital in Murray after news media reportedly were alerted to the medical condition of LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley through an e-mail. The 95-year-old president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints underwent surgery at LDS Hospital to remove a cancerous growth earlier this week. He was recovering on schedule and doctors were pleased with his progress, church spokesman Dale Bills said Friday on the faith's Web site, lds.org. Aryn Nelson, a gastroenterologist technician, said she was terminated on Wednesday because she had given her log-in information to a...

Health Care Denied Imagine you went to work one day, and your boss handed you a memo that said your employer, to protect the benefits of “responsible” employees, would no longer cover motorcycle-related injuries under the company’s health insurance? Plus, the company wouldn’t make good on its employee life insurance policy if you were killed in a motorcycle crash. You’d still be covered if you did almost anything else: bungee jumping, skydiving, scuba diving, skiing. Just not on your motorcycle. Outrageous? We think so. But that’s exactly what happened this summer to hundreds of workers at the American Coal...

The confidential drug purchase histories of many Harvard students and employees have been available for months to any internet user, as have the e-mail addresses of high-profile undergraduates whose contact information the University legally must conceal, a Crimson investigation has found. Administrators shut down a Harvard website contributing to the breach minutes after The Crimson demonstrated the problem yesterday afternoon. But at press time, sensitive data—including the drug histories of those insured by the University—remained vulnerable to anyone who obtains a student or professor’s non-confidential Harvard ID number. The now-disabled Harvard website, iCommons Poll Tool, required nothing more than a...

NEW YORK (HIPAA Wire) Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center suspended 17 workers Sept. 10 for trying to snoop into Bill Clinton's medical files, the Daily News reported. A doctor, several supervisors and a lab technician were among those disciplined for attempting to violate Clinton's privacy, said Jennifer Cunningham, executive VP of Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union. Twelve of those suspended belong to the union. Cunningham called the incident "highly regrettable and unprofessional." The workers were caught after they tried to sneak into Clinton's file using their computer passwords. However, hospital spokesperson Myrna Manners confirmed that no employees have...

At one time, polite people never asked to look at their own medical records. To do so would indicate a lack of trust in your physician. Besides, doctors were so resistant to the practice that getting hold of your records could require a subpoena. But that way of thinking is a relic of old-fashioned medicine, as out of date as the house call and the black medical bag. Since last April, federal law has required that doctors, clinics and hospitals provide patients with access to their records on demand. As it turns out, many people want to see them, and...

The Economy BombTicking Down FasterMore proof that legislative attacks upon the wealthiest 1% of Americans could soon wreck our economy. May 10, 2004 by John Gaver Publishers note: To reflect the large amount of relevant new data that has emerged over the last year, we felt that the annual update to our popular Tick-Tick-Tick article deserved a new name. Although this article contains much of what is in that article, the additional volume of new data actually constitutes a significant rewrite. Unfortunately, this means that the Economy Bomb is ticking down faster. Fact: The top-earning 1% of US taxpayers pay...

Veterinary hospitals across the nation are applying HIPAA’s privacy rules to their patients, the Macon Telegraph reports. The University of Georgia’s College of Veterinary Medicine refuses to release information about patients’ medical condition or allow photographs to be taken of the animals without their owners’ consent. "It’s like a human hospital," explains LaDon Wallis, a graduate of the University of Virginia’s veterinary school, who continues to work at its animal hospital. "It’s a hospital. It’s not just this place where animals are having a field day like a park. People should respect that," he argues. Sue Gray, records administrator at...

Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Bill Nelson (D-FL), along with other outsourcing opposers, are pushing legislation that make U.S. companies liable if a foreign subcontractor violates American privacy laws, the Times Union reports. The bill would also demand that U.S. businesses, including physicians and hospitals, gain consent from their consumers before shipping their private data overseas if the Federal Trade Commission determines that the destination does not have adequate privacy laws. "It’s an atomic invasion of privacy when consumer information is shipped overseas. There are not the consumer privacy safeguards that there are in this country," said Nelson, who...

Missing Woman's Family Says HIPAA Rules Blocking Search 38-Year-Old Woman Missing For Months POSTED: 5:20 pm CST March 22, 2004 UPDATED: 9:13 pm CST March 22, 2004 LAWRENCE, Kan. -- A Lawrence couple searching for their missing daughter says the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is blocking them from important information that could help them find their daughter, KMBC's Emily Aylward reported. HIPAA is the law that keeps patients' medical records private. The bill was introduced in 1996, but wasn't strictly enforced until 2003. Marilyn Anderson and her husband have been searching for their 38-year-old daughter since she...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Prosecutors can examine Rush Limbaugh's medical records to determine whether he should be charged with "doctor shopping" for prescription painkillers, a judge ruled on Tuesday. Palm Beach Circuit Judge Jeffrey A. Winikoff denied the conservative commentator's request to keep the records sealed. Limbaugh's attorneys had argued that the seizure of the records from doctors in Florida and California violated the radio host's privacy. Investigators obtained the records last month after discovering that Limbaugh received more than 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors, at a pharmacy near his $24 million Palm Beach mansion. Doctor shopping refers...

I know that HIPAA requires compliance from health providers and health insurance providers. It requires them to request that WE sign away our control over the privacy of our personal health records. It requires the establishment of a national database of health information about each of us and requires providers to share that data with others especially with government agencies for "official government purposes." It requires that the national database of individuals' health information be readily linked with the existing national database of individuals' financial records through the Social Security Number. Somehow I just won't feel comfortable when President Hillary!...

HIPAA, the stringent new federal medical-privacy law, took effect in April, and soon had what may be some rather drastic unintended consequences in the town of Craig, Colo.: "To protect the privacy of those needing medical help, 911 dispatchers stopped mentioning residents' names in radio calls to emergency response teams. That made it more difficult for the teams to find addresses," which critics charge may have contributed to the death of a local heart attack victim. Moreover, thousands of doctors "have stopped sending out appointment-reminder postcards, figuring the cards could be read by someone other than the patient. Some doctors...

Whether you know it or not you now have a medical identification number. I just received a copy of an in-house memo from an employer concerning HIPAA Compliance. It states, "Attached is a privacy notice that (name of company) is required to provide to you based upon a new health privacy law entitled the (print following in bold) Health Insurance Portabality and Accountability Act or HIPAA for short. If you have acquired medical services or filled a prescription in the past two days, you have probably been given a similar notice by the provider. You do not need to take...

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed by Congress in 1996 to set a national standard for electronic transfers of health data. At the same time, Congress saw the need to address growing public concern about privacy and security of personal health data. The task of writing rules on privacy eventually fell to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). After several modifications, DHHS issued the HIPAA Privacy Rule. The Privacy Rule is effective on April 14, 2003, for most health care providers, health plans, and health care clearinghouses. Small plans have until April 14,...

Contributing Editor: Health Sciences Institute e-Alert, 4/14/2003 Orwell Redux If you're a U.S. citizen, as of today you now have a medical identification number. Some will tell you that your new ID number helps protect your privacy. And while to some extent it does, the protections are largely superficial. The disturbing truth is that your medical privacy is now beyond your control. Just sign here... The next time you visit your doctor, you may notice some changes. For instance, you might see privacy screens placed around the edges of computer monitors to prevent someone from glancing at your personal medical...

Excuse the vanity, but I had to take my kid to the pediatrician today, then had to go to the pharmacy, and I had my first direct experience with the new medical privacy regulations known as HIPAA. I didn't have to fill out that many forms and answer that many questions to mortgage a house. And all the stuff they were doing ... hoods over the computers lest any nosy person see any private info, marking out names with a huge black marker on the signout sheet lest any nosy person see anyone else's name, a "wall" that no one...

ST. PAUL, Minn. (HIPAA Wire) A Minnesota state judge ruled Dec. 1 to permit the state’s Health Department to collect medical records on almost every state citizen, according to the Associated Press. Administrative law judge Allan Klein agreed with the Minnesota Health Department that collecting medical data would aid researchers who study disease clusters throughout the state, a decision that came as a shock to groups who feel the ruling means patient privacy in the state has hit a brick wall. But an official with the Health Department said the risk to patient privacy is minimal compared to the benefits...