Jessica Karmasek reports on a case in West Virginia that seems to pit the state trying to protect patient privacy rights under HIPAA against those trying to advocate for patients. While patient advocacy is generally considered a Good Thing, does providing patient records to a non-covered entity like Legal Aid without patient consent violate HIPAA?…
Category: Healthcare
AU: Patient’s intimate photo nightmare exposes privacy gap in NSW
Amy Corderoy reports: Brieana Rose (not her real name) could not have been more vulnerable. Unconscious on an operating table, having gynaecological surgery to see whether she had cancer. She could never have known that one of the people charged with looking after her would instead take advantage of her, violating her trust by taking…
TX: Planned Parenthood Records Raided
Mary Tuma reports: On Oct. 22, Texas Health and Human Services Commission‘s Office of Inspector General staff stormed Planned Parenthood offices unannounced in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Brownsville with subpoenas for thousands of pages of documents in medical-record storage facilities across Texas, including Austin, Waco, and Tyler. Claiming allegations of Medicaid fraud, but without providing concrete evidence, the raiders…
CEA Releases Guidelines on Privacy and Security of Personal Wellness Data
Meena Harris writes: Last week, the Consumer Electronics Association (“CEA”) announced its Guiding Principles on the Privacy and Security of Personal Wellness Data, a set of baseline, voluntary guidelines for private-sector organizations that handle the type of data often produced by wearable technologies. Read about the guidelines on Covington & Burling InsidePrivacy.