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February 2005 News ArchivesFebruary 23, 2005 Email Gaffe Reveals HIV, AIDS Names A list of the names of 4,500 Palm Beach County, FL, residents with AIDS and 2,000 others who are HIV-positive was emailed last week to more than 800 county health department employees, reports the Palm Beach Post. According to department spokesman Tim O'Connor, the statistician who sent the message, Jack Nolan, may face disciplinary action, but not prosecution, since he clearly did not intend to release the list. Statistician Nolan "within five minutes" recognized his error and contacted the department's computer specialists who shut down the agency's email system for "about an hour" Thursday and "scrubbed the system," removing all copies of the HIV/AIDS e-mail and its attachments from the system, O'Connor said. Tony Plakas, the executive director of a Palm Beach County gay and lesbian advocacy organization, said "this illustrates that it should not be this easy to send out personal medical information." "It looks like the health department did everything in their power to correct the mistake. But this is a serious breach," Plakas said. February 16, 2005 Semi-Annual US Healthcare Industry HIPAA Survey Asks: Will Security of Patient Data Be Preserved? Despite the April 20, 2005, deadline for compliance with the HIPAA Security Rule, only 30 percent of payers and 18 percent of healthcare providers who responded to this semi-annual survey indicate that they are compliant with these regulations. The Winter 2005 survey, released today at the 2005 Annual HIMSS Conference & Exhibition in Dallas, TX, is sponsored by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) and Phoenix Health Systems. February 14, 2005 Coalition Urges HHS to Modify HIPAA Privacy Rule Disclosures Requirement The American Hospital Association (AHA) and other healthcare organizations are again urging the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to exempt all disclosures to government entities from the HIPAA Privacy Rule's accounting of disclosures requirement, reports AHA News. In a letter to HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt last week, AHA and other members of the Confidentiality Coalition note that the Government Accountability Office also recommended exempting such disclosures from the rule in a report last September. The organizations called the accounting of disclosures requirement “extremely burdensome and costly” and said it was likely to become even more so with the development of interoperable electronic health records. February 11, 2005 VoIP Leaders Form Alliance for VoIP Security Research and Testing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) industry representatives of universities, security researchers, VoIP vendors, and VoIP providers formed an alliance earlier this week to discover and reduce VoIP security risks. The VoIP Security Alliance (VOIPSA) aims to help organizations understand and avoid VoIP security risks through discussion lists, white papers, sponsorship of VoIP security research projects, and the development of tools and methodologies for public use. “Despite the advantages of VoIP, if the technology is not implemented properly and securely, we will likely circumvent existing security controls and expose our networks,” said Brian Kelly, director of Giuliani Advanced Security Center at Ernst & Young. “This alliance is an important initiative to help us leverage the technology while understanding and managing the risks.” February 10, 2005 Group Launches Pilot Program to Access Health Records Online A nonprofit foundation aiming to bolster consumer adoption rates of electronic health records (EHRs) is launching pilot tests of the technology in Canada and the US, reports Computerworld. The Health Record Network Foundation (HRN), a joint venture of Durham, NC-based Duke University's medical and business schools, this month disclosed plans to launch a pilot program with a Toronto-based health system to create a portal where patient health information would be accessible over the Internet. Under the program, patient records will be stored on HRN servers. Patient approval would be required to store the records on the server and make them accessible to others. HRN is also finalizing plans for a statewide pilot program in Wyoming and is in discussions with other states. February 10, 2005 Iowa Dept. of Human Services Plan to Collect Personal Data Raises Privacy Concerns The State of Iowa wants to personal data, including names, addresses, and information about a patient's disability, on thousands of state residents who receive mental health services paid for by the government, reports the Des Moines Register. State Department of Human Services officials told the Associated Press that the information will help account for how millions of dollars is spent on mental health in the state. Patients' advocates say the data collection may violate patients' privacy and deter those who need treatment from getting it. They are urging the department to make sure it has strict safeguards to avoid breaches of confidential data before moving forward. February 9, 2005 New Alliance Pushes E-Prescribing in Maryland More than two dozen healthcare organizations, including two competing insurers and several large pharmacy chains, said yesterday that they are collaborating to get more doctors in Maryland to voluntarily switch to electronic prescriptions, reports InformationWeek. The Maryland Safety Through Electronic Prescribing (STEP) Initiative, aims to accelerate the voluntary adoption of e-prescribing among doctors in the state to improve patient safety. February 4, 2005 X12N Soliciting Comments for Implementation Guide A draft version of X12N's version 005010 834 Benefit Enrollment and Maintenance Implementation Guide is now available for public review and comment as a key step in its X12 Type 3 Technical Report (TR3) publication process. The public comment period begins today and will close on April 4 at 10:00 AM Eastern time. This Implementation Guide is a newer version, 005010, of the ones presently adopted under HIPAA, 004010 and 004010A1. The present plan is to propose the finalized version of this draft guide, modified based on any public comments, as a new HIPAA standard. The purpose of this 005010X220 guide is to:
Participation in the public comment period is open to all who may be interested. Download the draft implementation guide. Submit comments on the draft via the online conference.
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