Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/759111
36 CIO / HEALTH IT St. Joseph Health to Pay $2M HIPAA Settlement By Erin Dietsche I rvine, Calif.-based St. Joseph Health has agreed to pay a $2.14 million fine to settle claims that the health system violated HIPAA, according to MSP- mentor.com. Officials claim St. Joseph Health did not change the de- fault settings on its new server, which allowed members of the public to access 31,800 patients' personal health information. In February 2012, HHS' Office of Civil Rights launched an investigation into St. Joseph Health after the system reported files containing its patients' information were accessible online in 2011 due to the server malfunction. "The server SJH purchased to store the files included a file sharing application whose default settings allowed anyone with internet connection to access them," reads a statement from HHS' Office of Civil Rights. "Upon im- plementation of this server and the file sharing applica- tion, SJH did not examine or modify it. As a result, the public had unrestricted access to PDF files containing the [electronic protected health information] of 31,800 individuals, including patient names, health statuses, di- agnoses and demographic information." Along with the fine, St. Joseph Health agreed to imple- ment a corrective action plan to help prevent similar sit- uations from occurring again. n Stolen Medical Records Sell for Approximately $2, Report Finds By Anuja Vaidya T he marketplace for stolen medical records is grow- ing, but it is much smaller than the market for per- sonal financial data, according to Intel Security's McAfee Labs Health Warning report. Here are five key findings: 1. Stolen medical records have a price per record of $0.03 to $2.42. 2. The price is much lower than the $14 to $25 per-record price that personal financial account data commands. 3. This is likely due to the fact that cybercriminals must analyze health data in medical records before being able to use it for lucrative fraud, theft or blackmail opportunities. 4. Additionally, targeting biotechnology and pharma- ceutical firms for their intellectual property and busi- ness confidential information is also a more lucrative proposition than stolen medical records. 5. Cybercriminals are increasingly purchasing tools that will help them conduct cyberattacks on health- care organizations. n Cerner Cofounder Neal Patterson: Why He Says 'God Has a Sense of Humor' By Erin Dietsche C erner Cofounder Neal Patterson invited Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Health System President and CEO David Feinberg, MD, to keynote this year's Cerner Health Conference in Kan- sas City, Mo. But no one expected what happened aer Dr. Feinberg le the stage. Mr. Patterson surprised everyone — 15,000 conference attendees and Cerner's own public relations team — when he made an appearance at the event Wednesday, according to e Kansas City Star. While on stage, Mr. Patterson discussed his personal journey through the healthcare system. In January, he announced he was diagnosed with a so tissue cancer. "It was on New Year's of last year when I got the phone call that I had cancer," Mr. Patterson said at CHC yesterday. "I made a plan, got a strat- egy for treatment and then went to execute it. I realized God had a sense of humor: He put me in a place undergoing an EHR conversion." Due to his experiences, Mr. Patterson called for an improvement in healthcare IT. "e EHR needs to make medicine faster and safer, and there needs to be more participation from the patient. e industry's not there yet," he said. "It's still lacking and I know I was put in this position to make it better." During his speech, Mr. Patterson also touched on the challenges in today's healthcare environment and called upon attendees to rethink how they provide care. "I remember waiting four hours to get lab results. I asked a lady next to me in the waiting room how long she had been waiting, and her reply was seven hours. Seven hours! ere's no caring in that," Mr. Patterson said. "It's not like you have one doctor, one surgeon, a radia- tion oncologist and a medical oncologist — it's a team. It's time for the patient to be part of the team." As he wrapped up, Mr. Patterson said he's "getting stronger and get- ting better daily," and that he hopes he'll return to Cerner in his ca- pacity in January. n