Transcriber Threatens Release of Medical Records

Posted by michael on Thursday October 23, 2003 @01:08AM from the it's-10PM-do-you-know-where-your-gall-bladder-is dept.

talboito writes "David Lazarus of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on problems subcontracting sensitive data to outside firms. An unpaid Pakistani transcriber threatened to release medical records of patients at UCSF Medical Center on the internet. The article notes: 'U.S. laws maintain strict standards to protect patients' medical data. But those laws are virtually unenforceable overseas, where much of the labor-intensive transcribing of dictated medical notes to written form is being exported.' Most frightening, UCSF was unaware that its records were being sent overseas. The article traces their path backward through a chain of three different subcontractors."

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It's not limited to software companies by christoofar · 2003-10-23 01:59 · Score: 5, Interesting

I know of a particular BIG insurance company here in Texas that outsources a LOT of their core work overseas. This company happens to cater to members of the US armed forces and civil service employees. When people get deployed or move, they have to call this company to have all their addresses changed.

To think... now India and Pakistan probably now have a good listing of where a lot of our US service members are located. It's glad that India and Pakistan are our "aliies" or we'd really be in the shit now...