Another Privacy Breach and HIPAA

Here is some current reporting in regard to HIPAA and your privacy.  For many years, since this legislation was enacted, we have warned that it does little to protect your medical records or your privacy.  Rather it has been almost an open door for all kinds of distribution, even to many not involved in health care. 

We suggest you ask your health insurance provider about the status of your medical records and get copies of everything for your own file.

February 22, 2011, 4:02 pm

Health insurer fined $4.3M for HIPAA violation

By Jason Millman

The federal health department is slapping a Maryland health insurer with a $4.3 million civil money penalty (CMP) for violating medical records rules. 
Cignet Health's failure to honor patients' requests for access to their medical records earned the Department of Health and Human Services’s first-ever CMP for a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) privacy rule.
The fine represents the Obama administration’s toughened enforcement of medical privacy laws. The 2009 stimulus package, which provided almost $30 billion to develop electronic health record systems, included boosted penalties for HIPAA violations.
According to HHS’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), Cignet was fined $1.3 million for denying 41 patients access to their medical records between September 2008 and October 2009. The insurer was fined another $3 million for failing to cooperate with the OCR investigation.

“Ensuring that Americans’ health information privacy is protected is vital to our healthcare system and a priority of this Administration,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. “[HHS] is serious about enforcing individual rights guaranteed by the HIPAA Privacy Rule.” 

Daniel E. Austin, the owner of Cignet Health, a Christian-influenced health center, did not return calls to his office seeking comment. The Maryland Board of Physicians revoked his license in 2000 for his conviction for mail and loan fraud. Among the physicians listed on the center's Web site is one whose license was revoked in 2008 for engaging in sexual improprieties and sexual misconduct with patients.

Seeger said Cignet also provided health insurance. But last year, the Maryland Insurance Administration ordered Cignet to stop selling health insurance because it was not licensed to do so.

Several of the patients informed Cignet that they were requesting copies of their medical records so they could see doctors other than those working at Cignet, according to HHS documents.

To date HHS Secretary Sebelius has failed to enact several parts of healthcare legislation related to records due in Summer 2010.

Selections from Natural Health News

 

Natural Health News: Electronic Medical Records: MORE FRAUD RISK

Oct 17, 2010

I started posting articles about electronic health and medical records in 2006 on Natural Health News. I am not in favour of this push in the arena of cost savings in the US health system. To date little has been shown to indicate any 

1 in 10 Electronic Health Records in Error

Jul 19, 2010

1 in 10 medical records on the new electronic database contains errors that could put patients at risk, doctors warn. They contain out of date information, errors on medication or drug allergies etc. ...

Say NO to Electronic Medical Records

Jul 28, 2009

We also know that electronic medical record will not save money as well as the fact that HIPAA was the open sesame for everyone to get access to your data. You do have a choice, and most likely it is to find a health care professional

Electronic Health Records, Your Data At Risk

Nov 17, 2009

I started posting articles about electronic health and medical records in 2006 on Natural Health News. I am not in favour of this push in the arena of cost savings in the US health system. To date little has been shown to indicate any

On Line Health Records Opens Door to Access

May 21, 2008

Google's online filing cabinet for medical records opened to the public Monday, giving users instant electronic access to their health histories while reigniting privacy concerns. Called Google Health, the service lets users link ...

Cholesterol: Another Wrong Conclusion

Poor Predictor: Researchers reported that the cholesterol levels in women were not associated with stroke, while there was only an association in men with levels higher than 9mmol/litre. The average in UK men is 5.5.

I don't know where people's heads have been since the cholesterol bonanza began, but my stand is that these pundits overlooked a known fact, which now seems to be getting press after some 30 years. 

It's triglycerides!  And this is what I learned in college, what will really hurt you and lead you along the slippery slope to heart attack and stroke.

I have often written that once milk began to be homogenized, things started going down hill. This practice by commercial dairies caused dairy fat to be "osmosed" directly into your blood, in fool fat form.  Clogged arteries are the end result, that s if course unless you follow a health promoting food plan or use proper supplementation.

The comes the low-fat/non-fat diet and all kinds of health problems reach new, high levels.  More drugs, less benefit, more cases, no recovery, lack of prevention too!

High levels of cholesterol do not predict the risk of stroke.

They did detect an increased risk in men, but only when cholesterol was at almost twice the average level.

The report in Annals of Neurology recommends using a different type of fat in the blood, non-fasting triglycerides, to measure the risk.

The Stroke Association said triglyceride tests needed to become routine to reduce the risk of stroke.

A total of 150,000 people have a stroke in the UK each year. Most are ischemic strokes, in which a clot in an artery disrupts the brain's blood supply.

The research followed 13,951 men and women, who took part in the Copenhagen City Heart Study.

During the 33-year study, 837 men and 837 women had strokes.

Poor predictor

They reported that the cholesterol levels in women were not associated with stroke, while there was only an association in men with levels higher than 9mmol/litre. The average in UK men is 5.5.

The researchers at Copenhagen University Hospital said this was "difficult to explain" as LDL, or bad, cholesterol is known to cause atherosclerosis which can block arteries.

They did notice a link, in both men and women, between the risk of stroke and non-fasting triglycerides.

They believe these fats are a marker for "remnant cholesterol" which is left behind when other forms of cholesterol are made.

Dr Peter Coleman, deputy director of research at The Stroke Association said: "Tests for triglyceride levels aren't routinely carried out in the UK unless there is significant concern."

"We know that high levels of fats, such as cholesterol, increase your risk of having a stroke. However, this research shows the importance of measuring the fat triglyceride, as well as cholesterol.

"This study highlights the importance of measuring triglycerides routinely in order to reduce a person's risk of stroke." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12505230

Super Bugs in Your Food

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FDA Report Indicate Superbugs in Food

By Melanie Warner

A federal government report on antibiotic resistance reveals that superbugs in meat is a much more common and widespread problem than anyone would like to admit. New strains of hearty, antibiotic resistant salmonella, E. coli and campylobacter bacteria appear to be showing up in alarmingly high percentages of the chicken, turkey, pork and beef we buy at the supermarket.

These findings come from a little-noticed report the FDA releasedback in December. The report, which was dumped onto the FDA’s web site without so much as a mention or a press release, compiles data from 5,236 samples of chicken breasts, ground turkey, ground beef and pork chops that were taken in 2008. It’s unclear why the FDA either waited or took so long to release the info.

On her blog, Maryn McKenna, author of a book about antibiotic resistance called Superbug and the first person to write about the report, summarized some of the findings: In 2008, 45% of salmonella on chicken were resistant to the antibiotic tetracycline and 30% were immune to penicillins. Among enterococci bacteria on chicken, 65% were resistant to tetracycline and more than 90% to lincosamides, which include the everyday drug clindamycin.

Overall, salmonella, including resistant and non, was found in 12% of chicken and campylobacter in 49% of samples.

What this means for the millions of Americans who eat meat regularly is that our lunch not only has the ability to make us horribly sick, but that if we do become ill, the antibiotics that could be used to help us recover may not work.

It sounds quite scary — and it is — but the good news is that proper cooking kills most, if not all, of these dangerous bacteria. The danger comes when meat isn’t cooked thoroughly or handled properly — like if juice from raw meat comes into contact with other foods or hands that have touched uncooked meat are used to prepare other foods.

For meat industry groups, who are already feeling besieged by critics who charge that industrial livestock farming is inhumane and causes huge environmental messes, this is one more headache they don’t need. Meat producers use antibiotics on large factory farms, where thousands or tens of thousands of animals are confined in crowded quarters, to help prevent the spread of disease. They also use these drugs because, for reasons still unknown, they allow the animals to grow faster.

Such an overly judicious use of antibiotics has led to resistance because the relatively low doses administered to farm animals don’t kill all bacteria, allowing the heartiest ones to grow and mutate into superbugs. For the most part, Big Meat sees nothing wrong with its record of antibiotic use, and appears determined to defend it.

The question now is whether the FDA will do anything about the information in its report, which is based on the government’s National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS). Last June, FDA Deputy Commissioner Joshua Sharfstein took the bold, unprecedented step of saying the meat industry should stop using antibiotics on pigs, cattle and chicken simply for the purpose of making them grow faster. Then in December, much to the further chagrin of the meat industry, the agency released data on exactly how many antibiotics are used on farms — some 29 million pounds in 2009, or about 60% of all antibiotics in the U.S.

But less than a month later, Sharfstein, the FDA’s leader in this fight, resigned to become Maryland’s secretary of health and mental hygiene, casting doubt on whether the FDA will do anything to stop what is now clearly a runaway train.

Coming Soon: Another Phase of GMO Food

Genetic engineering brings cloned crops closer

Seeds genetically identical to parent plant could revolutionize agriculture.

The production of exact genetic replicas of important food crops has come a step closer. By combining mutations that abolish the shuffling of genes during sexual reproduction, researchers have found a way to force sexually reproducing plants to clone themselves through seeds.

 

Think about this and read on

Dr. Wakefield: Was Attack Based on Conflict of Interest?

Quick Vaccine Facts

As reported by the New England Journal of Medicine - 35% of adverse reports for rheumatoid arthritis are associated with MMR.

Rubella vaccine caused 55% of RA cases 1991-1998 in girls.

1 of 3 damaged neurologically from DPT;  35,000 yearly.

Pertussis: Babies die 7 times greater within 3 days of vaccination.  Reported as SIDS.  Journal of Pediatrics shows only 40-45% non-sustained effectiveness.  In an Ohio outbreak, 82% of those vaccinated developed the disease.

Is it just conceivably possible, that the BMJ's decision to commission and publish Brian Deer's series of  articles attacking Dr. Andrew Wakefield's personal and scientific integrity--without giving him an opportunity to defend himself--and to lend its unwavering editorial endorsement to the charges--might be influenced by a SIGNIFICANT financial conflict of interest? 

In 2008, the pharmaceutical giant, Merck, signed a partnership agreement with the BMJ Group that effectively gave the company control of 350 interactive continuing medical education courses in over 20 medical therapy areas?

In 2009, The Lancet also entered into a Merck partnership. 

"This unique partnership will change the face of medical education in Europe and beyond, allowing users access to most of BMJ Learning's library of 'Continuing Medical Education' (CME) and 'Continuing Professional Development' (CPD) content. " 

More: http://www.thefreelibrary.com/MSD+Signs+Partnership+With+BMJ+Group.-a0180213953

Why did the BMJ conceal from readers--of both the Deer series and the BMJ editorial excoriating Dr. Andrew Wakefield, charging him with deliberate fraud and financial conflict of interest--the fact that the BMJ had a partnership with Merck, manufacturer of 13 vaccines--including the MMR vaccine, which is at the center of the Wakefield controversy?  

The BMJ editorial accompanying Deer's articles, did its best to lend authority to the vaccine industry (Merck's) perspective. In an introductory sound bite the editors declare: "Clear evidence of falsification of data should now close the door on this damaging vaccine scare."

Read more.... http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/766/9/

Ralph Nader on Water Fluoridation

WHY FLUORIDE IS PROMOTED

Lifestyle Boosts Longevity

I have longlife genes on both sides of my family.  I engage in many lifestyle activities none the less.  I was visiting a neighbor the other day who is 80 years plus.  She thought I was 52.  I come in at about 43 on longevity quizzes that guestimate your age.

I think there is something to this.

All of this is at your command.  And it has been proven many times that it is NEVER too late to start.

An article published online on December 22, 2010 in the Journal of Internal Medicine reveals that our own actions may be more important than inherited factors in dictating how long we live.

For the current investigation, Lars Wilhelmsen and colleagues at the University of Gothenburg evaluated data from the 1913 Men epidemiological study, which enrolled 855 fifty-year-old men in 1963. Subjects provided anthropomorphic, parental and lifestyle data, and were examined for cardiovascular health and other functions. The men were re-evaluated at the ages of 54, 60 and 67.

Thirteen percent of the participants were still living at 90 years of age. These survivors were likelier at age 50 to be nonsmokers, drink moderate amounts of coffee, have higher socio-economic status and have lower serum cholesterol levels compared with men who failed to reach this age, yet the number of years attained by the men's parents did not appear to influence their own longevity.

The most important predictive factors at ages beyond 50 included having low blood pressure and good cardiorespiratory function. When predictive factors at all examinations were analyzed, being a nonsmoker, consuming low amounts of coffee, being of higher socioeconomic status, having low serum cholesterol, and possessing good physical working capacity emerged as significant.

"Our study shows that hereditary factors don't play a major role and that lifestyle has the biggest impact," stated professor emeritus Lars Wilhelmsen of Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg. "We're breaking new ground here. Many of these factors have previously been identified as playing a role in cardiovascular disease, but here we are showing for the first time that they are important for survival in general."

"The study clearly shows that we can influence several of the factors that decide how old we get," he added. "This is positive not only for the individual, but also for society as it doesn't entail any major drug costs." 

Strong Legs Critical to Health