HIPAA Blog

[ Wednesday, May 30, 2007 ]

 

This is Odd: BNA is reporting (subscription required) that CMS is anxious about a data loss by the VA. It seems one of the VA's portable hard drives went missing. Normally, the concern arises because the data lost included protected health information of the individuals in question, and the concern escalates if identifiers such as social security numbers are released. However, in this case, the data was not patient information, but provider information, including UPINs and demographic information on the providers.

I guess there might be something wrong in the demographic information getting out, but not if it's just office addresses and similar information. But UPINs? You're supposed to share the new NPI with everyone; is the UPIN secret? Doesn't make much sense to me. . . .

Jeff [10:20 AM]

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