By Donna Ruscitti on Porter Wright continues its tradition of providing cutting-edge information about how technology affects your business with the 2016 Technology Seminar Series, beginning May 18. This year’s sessions are: May 18: Big Data, Data Analytics & the Law 2016: What Your Company Needs to Know About the Evolution of the Next Big Thing “Big data” is one of today’s … Continue Reading
By Donna Ruscitti on Porter Wright continues its tradition of providing cutting-edge information about how technology affects your business with the 2014 Technology Seminar Series, beginning June 18. This year’s sessions are: Social media in litigation: a shield and a sword June 18 The worlds of social media and litigation have collided. Social media evidence is used in employment … Continue Reading
By Jay L. Levine on Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act — the Act that established the FTC in the first place — makes it unlawful to engage in “unfair methods of competition … and unfair or deceptive acts or practices…” Though the words seem simple enough, its application in today’s world is anything but simple, particularly when you talk about data privacy. Two companies — Wyndham Worldwide Corp. and LabMD Inc. — are publicly, and independently, challenging the FTC’s authority over their data security policies (and subsequent lapses). This post is a quick update about LabMD’s challenge.
In August 2013, the FTC filed an administrative complaint against LabMD, alleging that it lacked appropriate data security and unreasonably exposed the health and personal data of its consumers. LabMD conducts clinical laboratory tests on patients and reports its finding to patients’ health care providers. In performing the needed tests, LabMD typically obtains personal information, including names, addresses, dates of birth, SSNs, bank account or credit card information, laboratory tests, test codes and results, diagnoses, clinical histories, and health insurance company names and policy numbers. LabMD possesses such data for approximately 1 million consumers.
The FTC charged that LabMD “failed to provide reasonable and appropriate security for personal information on its computer networks.” Among other things, the complaint states that LabMD failed to:
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By Porter Wright on In case you missed the OCR announcement late yesterday afternoon, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it was imposing a civil money penalty of $4.3 million dollars against Cignet Health for various violations of HIPAA. These penalties were based upon the violation categories and increased penalty amounts authorized by the HITECH Act; … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Office of Civil Rights for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently requested comments related to its upcoming rulemaking under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. HITECH expands the current HIPAA Privacy Rule requirement that a covered entity provide … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on As of February 22, 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) began enforcement of data breach notification requirements explained in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH Act”). Enacted as a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the HITECH Act, modifies the Health Insurance Portability … Continue Reading
