Again, why is this relevant? Because when you pay for your psychotherapy via insurance company your information will become inevitably digitized and subject to leak. The examples are numerous. A post by Ken Pope from last year – the excerpting is his work.
This morning’s *Health Leaders* includes an article: “Data Breaches Cost Hospitals $6B Yearly” by Dom Nicastro.
Here are some excerpts:
[begin excerpts]
Hospitals spend $6 billion annually because of data breaches, and Federal regulations enacted under the HITECH Act have not improved the
safety of patient records research from The Ponemon Institute shows.
Among the data security and privacy research firm’s findings:
* Hospitals are not protecting patient data
* Hospitals admit to being vulnerable to a data breach
* Breaches of patient information are occurring frequently and often go unreported, putting patients’ privacy at risk
* A small percentage of healthcare organizations rely on security technologies to prevent and detect data breach incidents
* Federal regulations–HITECH–have not improved the safety of patient records
The Health Information Trust Alliance’s (HITRUST) analyzes of breaches of unsecured protected health information (PHI) of 500 or more affected individuals on the Office for Civil Rights website.
Covered entities and business associates reporting the breaches on the site together could spend nearly $1 billion because of those breaches, the August 2010 report found.
OCR’s breach notification website list has grown since the HITRUST report.
As of Thursday, November 4, 189 entities have reported breaches of 500 or more.
[end excerpts]
The article is online at:
Ken Pope
pasadena therapist 