Health care has a problem. Well, of course, it has many problems, but one of them is that the various parties involved in the health care system can't agree on who we are. Twenty years ago HIPAA called for creation of unique patient identifiers to accomplish this task, but within two years Congress put this on hold until further notice, and we're still waiting. Everyone used to use social security numbers for this purpose, until we finally figured out the folly of that (especially since that number was never intended to be used as a national identification number). The private sector continues to clamor for federal action, while CHIME launched a National Patient ID Challenge in order to come up with solutions. News flash; we already have a unique, non-government-issued identifier: it's called a cell phone number...
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
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FTC: Google Offers 'Brutal Choice' on Privacy Policies
The chairman of the Federal Trade Commission said on Sunday that Google was giving consumers a "binary and somewhat brutal" choice on whether they want to go along with the changes to the company's privacy policies set to go into effect next week. Read More »
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Google Antitrust Suit Said To Be Urged By FTC Staffers
U.S. Federal Trade Commission investigators are circulating an internal draft memo that recommends suing Google Inc. (GOOG) for abusing its dominance of Internet search in violation of antitrust laws, three people familiar with the matter said. Read More »
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Google: It's Time To Take Action Against Patent Trolls, Privateering
Google bands together with BlackBerry and Red Hat as it continues its offensive to defend itself against patent suits. Read More »
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Health Care, Consuming And Politics In America
We know that escalating healthcare costs are a huge threat to our national solvency, to budget deficits and the national debt. It is the major political issue as we have seen over the battle for and against ObamaCare. It continues to simmer in the form of coming battles over Medicare and Medicaid. Read More »
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Health Industry Struggling To Keep Up With Growing ID Theft Problem
The rise in medical identity theft in the U.S. in recent years--and in particular, theft involving a breach in technology--has been swift and has left many concerned about the effectiveness of privacy regulations, according to a recent Stateline report. Read More »
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Healthcare.gov Sends User Information To Third Parties, Violating Its Own Privacy Policy
Here's more evidence of cutting corners during the development of the Healthcare.gov insurance marketplace: the website appears to be violating its own privacy policy by sending private user information to third parties. Read More »
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HHS Makes Changes to 'Wall of Shame' Breach Reporting Site
The Department of Health and Human Services has made changes to its website, widely referred to as the "wall of shame," that lists reports of major health data breaches affecting 500 or more individuals. The changes come after complaints from some members of Congress and others that the website unfairly exposes breached organizations to endless public scrutiny because incidents are indefinitely listed on the site...
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How the Government's 2013 Tech Policy Agenda Will Impact IT
From cybersecurity to privacy, mobile broadband to net neutrality, the coming year in Washington promises to be a busy one for the technology sector. Read More »
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Industry Agrees To New Mobile App Guidelines
Industry groups and privacy advocates on Thursday were near agreement on voluntary guidelines for mobile apps that should make it easier for consumers to know what personal information is getting sucked from their smartphone or tablet and passed along to marketers. Read More »
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Is Machine Interoperability the Next Unusable Level of Meaningful Use?
As the HIMSS15 extravaganza is getting under way, and every EHR vendor flush with cash from the Meaningful Use bonanza is preparing to take its unusable product to the next level, machine interoperability is shaping up to be the belle of the ball. A simple minded person may be tempted to wonder why people who, for decades, manufactured and sold EHRs that don’t talk to each other, are all of a sudden possessed by interoperability fever. The answer is deceptively simple. After exhausting the artificially created market for EHRs, these powerful captains of industry figured out that extracting rents for machine interoperability is the next big thing.
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Mobile Health Technology: It's A Phone, It's An App, It's A…Medical Device?
As mobile health technology has proliferated, federal regulatory authorities have taken notice. In particular, over the last five years the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been honing its approach to mobile apps and has released a series of documents that provide helpful guidelines to developers of healthtech apps. In particular, the FDA sorts mobile apps into three buckets...
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New Blue Button Directory Unveiled at HIMSS17
The National Association for Trusted Exchange (NATE) today unveiled NATE's Blue Button Directory (NBBD) at the HIMSS17 annual conference in Orlando, FL. This FHIR-based solution is the newest prototype being developed by NATE to make it easier for consumers and providers to share data to improve outcomes. Consumers are actively requesting their medical records and providers want to share them but there is often a workflow disconnect between the two. As part of the Federal Health Architecture's vignette in the HIMSS17 Interoperability Showcase (Level 2 | Lobby F | Tangerine Ballroom | Booth 9000), NATE and its partners are demonstrating how a simple enabling infrastructure can alleviate this problem...
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No Thanks, I Already Have a Number
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Obamacare: Scammers Seizing the Opportunity
Scammers apparently taking advantage of people’s confusion over the Affordable Care Act are calling to offer “Obamacare cards” and threatening to throw them in jail unless they buy insurance Read More »
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Officials Aren’t Counting The Growing Cost Of Online Obamacare Fraud
Don't ask the federal government how much money citizens are losing to Obamacare Internet scams. Tracking the dollars stolen through fake exchanges and other sites that prey on insurance applicants apparently is not under the administration's jurisdiction. Read More »
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