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Data Breaches More Common than Realized

By Darrell K. Pruitt; DDS

Here is an article titled “Report: Healthcare Organizations may have a False Sense of Data Security,” written by Neil Versel for FierceHealthIT.

http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/report-healthcare-organizations-may-have-false-sense-data-security/2010-04-12?sms_ss=twitter#ixzz0kzNS6lq

Versel describes the results of a study commissioned by Nashville, Tenn-based Kroll Fraud Solutions. Kroll estimates that 19% of healthcare organizations in the nation suffered a data breach in the last 12 months. That number is up from 13% a year ago. It is based on this information that I estimate that in the last year, at least 24 million dental patients in the nation have been unknowingly exposed to the danger of identity theft. Everyone agrees that the only ethical thing for a dentist to do if he or she knows that patients’ identities have been exposed is to notify the patients and HHS. The shameful fact is, data breaches in dentistry are not being reported.

Enter the Dentists  

But, who can blame American dentists for underreporting breaches without first blaming the heavy-handed, stakeholder-friendly system that forces honest professionals to be dishonest? If a dentist self-reports a breach of 500 or more patients’ Protected Health Information (PHI) it can easily bankrupt a practice. The harm to one’s reputation in the community is just too great a disincentive for even the best of us, even without the added expense of patient notification, subsequent fines and lawsuits. It’s ugly, but that’s the hard, hidden truth about HITECH-HIPAA in dentistry – a piece of lame, one-sided “feel good” legislation that rather than preventing data breaches in dentists’ offices, it drives them underground. As healthcare providers, we should have warned our patients about the growing danger from electronic dental records long ago. Besides me, there are no practicing dentists discussing the topic. Why?

Accepting Ownership of the Dilemma  

Would anyone like to argue that the bi-partisan federal mandate for an interoperable, national eHR system relieves dentists of their obligations to the Hippocratic Oath? Let’s face it: Dentists’ computers continue to threaten up to 20% of dental patients in the nation. We cannot ignore it any longer, doctors.  Once we finally accept ownership of our problem, what are we going to do about it? I’ve suggested that we use common sense and simply remove the dangerous information from dental patients’ files. Anyone see any problem with this idea? Anyone have a better solution?

Assessment 

So what do the leaders of the ADA think of de-identification?

Conclusion

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Filed under: Information Technology, Pruitt's Platform | Tagged: ADA, Darrell Pruitt, eDRs, EMRs, HHS, HIPAA, HITECH, Kroll Fraud Solutions, protected health information | 7 Comments »