FTC Steps in on Personal Health Records – 500 or More Breached Files Must have Media Broadcast

This is getting very confusing as different government agencies are finding a need to step in with regulation. Healthcare reform, thus is not simple, and what we need now are the various agencies to work together, it’s becoming a big spiders nest to say the least, and perhaps we might see in government what we see in private industry, consolidation of departments, shoot it could even save money too. Back in April I posted about the FTC being the new watchdog for personal health records.

PHRs getting a new watchdog – The FTC to Help Protect Privacy

Bill Gates was correct about one thing, how the US got off to a bad start with using data and now we are having to deal with the left overs of an administration who ran for the hills when it came to technology, the executive branch of the former president. Not too long ago it was also pondered if the FDA was going to have to approve certain cell phones too, as they now report data that constitutes part of a medical record that ties in to being a “medical device”. Google and Microsoft though are using far more stringent security software than HIPAA requires, so they appear to be ahead of the game in this area. BD

While it has yet to rule on whether PHRs should be covered under HIPAA, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has voted 4-0 and issued a final rule that requires certain “Web-based businesses” to alert consumers if there is a security breach of their electronic health information. If 500 or fewer consumers’ health information is breached, then the health service provider must alert the consumers only. If more than 500 consumers’ health data is breached then the service provider must also alert the media, according to the FTC ruling.