Justin Wingerter reports: A state investigation has concluded that the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs did not violate privacy laws when it allowed medical aides to search patients’ records on their cellphones. Mark Gower, the state’s chief information security officer, wrote in a memo Thursday that the practice did not violate state or federal privacy…
Category: Healthcare
New Florida school security measures require mental health disclosure
From the road-to-Hell-has-been-traveled-too-frequently dept. Carrie Seidman has a commentary on Florida law that all parents of Florida students should read, and parents in other states should take note of in case the same provision is proposed in their states. Seidman writes, in part: Buried amid the school security measures swiftly passed by the Florida Legislature…
Facebook Violates Trust of ‘Private’ Patient Groups
Ellen Matloff reports: Thousands of women who carry mutations in the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 and joined ‘private’ Facebook groups recently learned that their groups were vulnerable to a Chrome plug-in that allowed marketers to discover group members’ names and other private health information. That Chrome plug-in has since been removed from this, and apparently all…
Secretary Azar Says HHS Will Reform Health Privacy Regulations
Dena Feldman of Covington & Burling writes: On July 26, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar said that HHS will undertake an effort to reform federal health privacy rules, including those under HIPAA and the rules governing substance abuse treatment records at 42 C.F.R. Part 2 (Part 2). In…