American Society for Clinical Pathology Website Was Hacked Last Year, Possibly Exposing Credit Card Information of Members and Online Shoppers

Thousands of pathologists and medical technologists may have had their private data stolen, though ASCP investigators did not confirm this as having happened For a “limited time period” in 2020, the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) was the target of a cyberattack that “potentially exposed payment card data as it was being entered” on the ASCP website, according to a letter sent by McDonald Hopkins PLC to then Attorney General of the New Hampshire Department of Justice (DOJ)...

UK’s NHS Will Use Amazon Alexa to Deliver Official Health Advice to Patients in the United Kingdom

Since Alexa is now programed to be compliant with HIPAA privacy rules, it’s likely similar voice assistance technologies will soon become available in US healthcare as well Shortages of physicians and other types of caregivers—including histopathologists and pathology laboratory workers—in the United Kingdom (UK) has the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) seeking alternate ways to get patients needed health and medical information. This has prompted a partnership with Amazon to use the Alexa...

HHS Announces Culpability Limits for HIPAA Violations, Drops Annual Fines Owed by Providers

Clinical laboratories need to understand how their patients’ protected health information is being used and secured by vendors to avert data breaches and HHS penalties Most readers of The Dark Report, the sister publication to the Dark Daily, are aware that more than 24-million clinical laboratory patients had their protected health information (PHI) stolen during several recent data breaches involving multiple medical laboratory companies. The first public statements made by clinical lab...

DOJ Pursues Organizations That Falsely Claim Compliance with Medicare’s EHR Incentive Programs

Clinical laboratories that interface with hospital EHR systems under scrutiny by the DOJ could be drawn into the investigations Officials at the federal US Department of Justice (DOJ) continue to pursue fraud cases involving health systems that allegedly have falsely attested to complying with the Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record (EHR) adoption incentive programs (now known as the Promoting Interoperability Programs). This is important for clinical laboratory leaders to watch,...

Sales of Direct-to-Consumer Clinical Laboratory Genetic Tests Soar, as Members of Congress Debate How Patient Data Should be Handled, Secured, and Kept Private

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing has been much in the news of late and clinical laboratories, anatomic pathology groups, and biomedical researchers have a stake in how the controversy plays out. While healthcare consumers seem enamored with the idea of investigating their genomic ancestry in growing numbers, the question of how the data is collected, secured, and distributed when and to whom, is under increased scrutiny by federal lawmakers, bioethicists, and research scientists....
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