Posts Tagged ‘medical identity theft’

Medical Identity Theft: Medical Equipment Co. Owner Sentenced to Prison

Friday, February 20th, 2009

I just ran across this U.S. Department of Justice (USDOJ) press release from January 20, 2009…

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More On The HHS HIPAA Compliance Activities

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Today I communicated with Sue Marquette Poremba at SC Magazine for an article she published this afternoon, “Proliferating HIPAA complaints and medical record breaches
She had seen my blog posting from yesterday, “HIPAA Complaints And Associated Resolutions Since 2003” and asked me some follow-up questions.
Here is the full reply I sent to her, much of which she used within her article, but with some other points I want to note as well…

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HIPAA Complaints And Associated Resolutions Since 2003

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

The U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has required compliance from covered entities (CEs) since 2003. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the Federal agency with regulatory oversight for compliance; with the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) responsible for Privacy Rule enforcement and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) responsible for Security Rule enforcement. Why two different offices to perform enforcement activities? No good reason was ever given.
I was just out looking on the HHS’s HIPAA compliance and enforcement site.
On May 12, 2008, they provided some interesting statistics from their enforcement activities from the past 5 years. Looks like they love Excel and the graphing capabilities! 🙂 I want to share some of the statistics with you…

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APEC Privacy Framework: Viewpoints from the FTC, TRUSTe & Marty Abrams

Saturday, October 27th, 2007

One of the sessions I attended at the IAPP Privacy Academy this past week was “APEC Update – Self Regulatory Approaches to Cross Border Transfers of Personal Data.” The presenters were: Pamela Jones Harbour, Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Marty Abrams, Executive Director, Center for Information Policy Leadership, and Fran Maier, Executive Director and President, TRUSTe.

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Many Kinds of Identity Theft Cause Many Types of Long Lasting Negative Impacts

Friday, October 26th, 2007

I want to revisit the blog posting I made a few days ago, “Average Cost of ID Theft Per Victim is $31,356
Some folks gave me some feedback, saying that they thought this cost was way too high based upon their own experiences when someone had used their credit cards and “it only took a matter of minutes to call the credit card company and report it, cancel the card/number, and get a new card, along with the $50” that they were responsible for.

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Medical Identity Theft and Bill Requiring Criminal Background Checks In LTC Facilities

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007

I have had relatives very close to me who, because of degenerative diseases and medical problems, have had to go to long term care (LTC) facilities. I always worried about the care they were receiving when I was not around. I worried that others would not be caring for them in a truly caring and kind way. I worried that people who had been convicted of violent crimes and financial fraud might try to take advantage of them and the others in the facility. I tried to keep a close watch on them.

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Medical Identity Theft and HIPAA

Friday, December 22nd, 2006

On Wednesday the Queens Gazette ran a report on medical identity theft.
This certainly is an issue of concern. I blogged about medical identity theft earlier this year.
Combining identity theft with unauthorized access to medical information certainly can lead to magnified repercussions beyond wrecked credit ratings and hundreds of hours spent trying to clean up all the damage a criminal can do with personally identifiable information (PII). The potential increases for further abusing and horribly impacting the involved individuals, metally, physically and financially, by having access to their prescription information, insurance information, physician information, medical history, and everything else involved.

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