Patient privacy news and information

Every hospital and healthcare facility has some variation of this sign: “It's the law. Be careful not to discuss patients in public.” Like World War II posters warning that “Loose lips sink ships,” these notices stress that information falling into the wrong hands can lead...
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A consortium of privacy supporting organizations and individuals, the Texas-based Patient Privacy Rights Foundation, Microsoft Corp. and consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers have developed what they're calling a “trust framework” for health information technology systems.
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The new CEO at Accretive Health, the beleaguered revenue-cycle management company, faces the challenging task of moving the company beyond its immediate financial problems and the glare of national publicity stemming from its allegedly aggressive billing collection practices.
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While Tuesday marks the effective date of a host of new federal privacy and security rules, including extending legal liability to business associates of healthcare providers and restoring a measure of patient control over disclosure of their records, compliance won't be required until six months...
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The top federal healthcare privacy and security regulator wants to know what officials from more than 100 organizations that have undergone privacy and security audits thought of the process and what can be done to improve it.
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Mobile healthcare apps are multiplying fast and putting a vast array of new tools in the hands of patients and the providers who deliver their care. The pace and scope of innovation makes it hard to imagine what app developers will create next. So we put the question to some of the thinkers in the...
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The future is unclear for a promising heart device aimed at preventing strokes in people at high risk of them because of an irregular heartbeat.
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A Salem, Ore., hospital says it is reviewing the facts behind a decision not to inform police that a missing 81-year-old man was safe in the hospital while friends and police spent two days searching for him.
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Accretive Health, under fire for its allegedly aggressive hospital bill collection practices, is postponing the release of its financial results while it evaluates a change in how it recognizes revenue from its revenue-cycle management agreements.
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Fewer seniors died in hospitals during the past decade and the use of hospice increased, but more elderly were also hospitalized within a month of dying or moved within days of death, research shows.
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