Medical Problems Could Include Identity Theft

The New York Times, By WALECIA KONRAD,Published: June 12, 2009

Brandon Sharp, a 37-year-old manager at an oil and gas company in Houston, has never had any real health problems and, luckily, he has never stepped foot in an emergency room. So imagine his surprise a few years ago when he learned he owed thousands of dollars worth of emergency-service medical bills. Brandon Sharp, of Spring, Tex., learned he was a victim of medical I.D. theft only when he applied for a mortgage and discovered debts on his credit report for emergency room visits at places in the country he had never been.

Mr. Sharp, as it turned out, was a victim of a fast-growing crime known as medical identity theft.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/13/health/13patient.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=%22identity%20theft%22&st=cse

Hospital sued over security after alleged parking lot sex assault

By Steve Green (contact)
Published Tue, Jun 9, 2009 (1:02 p.m.) Updated Tue, Jun 9, 2009 (6:17 p.m.)

Roy Trost , Sun Archives
Sexual assault suspect arrested in California (5-23-08)
One of the two women allegedly sexually assaulted by a man in the parking lot of a Las Vegas hospital last year says security was inadequate there and has filed a lawsuit over the incident.
In her lawsuit, Jane Doe charges security -- provided by the hospital and an unnamed contracted security provider -- failed to prevent the attack.
"Defendant hospital ... owed a duty of care to its customers, patients and visitors to provide premises which were reasonably safe from criminal assaults by third persons," the lawsuit alleges.
"Defendant hospital knew or should have known that dangerous and criminal activity was taking place on and about the premises of defendant hospital and that criminal attacks upon the persons or property of customers, patients and visitors were foreseeable," the suit continued.

Tenet Employee Charged with Theft, HIPAA Violations

John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media, May 27, 2009

Federal prosecutors in Miami have charged an employee at Tenet Healthcare Corp.'s Palmetto General Hospital in Hialeah and an accomplice with theft of patient records and felony HIPAA violations.
Jacquetta L. Brown, 29, a medical records employee at the 360-bed acute-care hospital, and accomplice Tear Renee Barbary, 25, face multiple felony counts of conspiracy to commit access device fraud, and criminal HIPAA violations. Brown also faces aggravated identity theft.

http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/content/233655/topic/WS_HLM2_LED/Tenet-Employee-Charged-with-Theft-HIPAA-Violations.html