Speaker Name(s): Digital Healtcare Conference
Description: Security breaches, hacks, virus attacks, and disasters can all lead to lost, stolen or damaged medical records and lead to huge liabilities. The March 2006 issue of Consumers Reports magazine reports that the national system being developed for sharing of electronic medical records has the potential for abuse. Recently Providence Home Services reported that 365,000 patient records were stolen from an employee's car when he took home disks and computer tapes. ChoicePoint was fined $10M for its data breach. 57,000 Blue Cross/Blue Shield customers in Arizona had personal data stolen from a safe. Hurricane Katrina caused a loss of not only medical records, but files pertaining to 125 federal Vioxx lawsuits were waterlogged. HIPPA regulates how data may be shared without a patient's knowledge for treatment, research, and billing. But HIPPA does not require a disclosure audit if those records are compromised. Advocates of electronic medical records sharing say that the systems will have the tightest security possible, but recent large-scale thefts of credit card and banking information have all shown that state of the art security technologies and policies are vulnerable Each audience member will receive a summary of a fictional composite case involving the duty of care to protect heath records and the duty of care to patients when records are improperly released. Two experienced trial lawyers will give brief opening arguments for the plaintiff and the defense illustrating the issues raised by the facts. This session will cover: • Liability and risk associated with retention and destruction of medical records, documents and e-mail • Lessons to be learned from security and identify theft in other industries • Additional exposure for inadequate responses to release or loss of health records • Best practices for responding to breaches in security, including identity theft