Breaches of Personal Health Data Increase, CT in Middle of Pack

An excess of 20 million patient records have been stolen, hacked, lost, improperly disposed of and/or subjected to unauthorized access since the August 2009, according to Healthcare IT News.   The web-based publication compiled data supplied by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since the August 2009 Breach Notification Rule requiring HIPAA-covered entities provide notification after a data breach involving 500 or more individuals. A report by Redspin.com, using HHS data, indicates there were 385 reported breaches of protected health information in 2011, that 59% of breaches involved a business associate, 39% occurred on a laptop or portable device, and the five largest incidents resulted in slightly more than half of the data breached.

States with the highest number of patient records estimated to have been subject to data breach (exceeding 176 people per thousand population) include New Hampshire, Utah, Virginia.  The next group of states, with between 87 and 176 people per thousand, includes California, New York, Arizona, Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Connecticut is in the middle tier of states, with between 16 and 48 people per thousand population having had their healthcare data compromised.

Earlier this year, Attorney General Jepsen announced he is seeking more information from Hartford Hospital about why unencrypted personal information and protected health information of approximately 9,000 patients was stored on a laptop apparently stolen from a third-party vendor.

Back in 2010, a healthcare data breach in Connecticut that exposed medical information for more than 400,000 individuals resulted in action by former Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, reportedly  the first time that a state attorney general  used the new provisions of the HITECH Act of 2009 to sue a healthcare provider for HIPAA violations.  In that instance, an external hard drive containing unencrypted medical records went missing from Health Net of Connecticut. Another interesting aspect, it was reported,was that the  Attorney General sought not only monetary awards but also a court order forcing Health Net to encrypt all portable electronic devices.

In reviewing the causes of the data breaches of health care records nationwide, it is estimated that 50% were as a result of theft, 18% due to unauthorized access or disclosure, 12% due to loss, 9.5% due to a combination of factors, 6% due to hacking and 4.6% due to improper disposal.

The past few years have brought massive reported breaches, such as the 4.9 million records lost by TRICARE Management Activity (a Department of Defense health care program) when backup tapes disappeared, 1.9 million records lost when hard drives disappeared from HealthNet, and 1.7 electronic medical records stolen from the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation's North Bronx Healthcare Network.

Prescription Drug Take Back Day is Saturday; 60 CT Sites Ready

State and local law enforcement officials in more than 60 cities and towns across Connecticut will join with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) this Saturday, September 29, to give residents the opportunity to prevent drug abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs. Attorney General George Jepsen joined the DEA, the state Departments of Consumer Protection and of Emergency Services and Public Protection, and the Governor’s Prevention Partnership in detailing the state’s growing prescription drug problem and encouraging state residents to take part in National Prescription Drug Take Back Day by visiting a nearby collection site.  Connecticut’s  collection sites will be open from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reports that 90 percent of addictions start in the teenage years. Prescription medications are now the most commonly used drugs among 12 to 13 year olds. Two-thirds of teens who abuse pain relievers say they get them from their family members and friends

“Prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing drug problem in the United States, and the problem is here, at our doorstep,” said Attorney General Jepsen. “Safe disposal of unused and unwanted prescription medications is an effective way of getting potentially dangerous substances out of medicine cabinets.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control, more Americans die from drug overdoses than in car crashes, and this increasing trend is driven by prescription painkiller overdoses.

“National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is an opportunity for us to increase awareness of the simple steps we all can take to slow the growth of prescription drug abuse, which is a 365-day a year problem, and to encourage everyone to use safe drug disposal practices every day,” Department of Consumer Protection Commissioner William M. Rubenstein said, noting that Connecticut has sites for unused prescription medication to be turned in throughout the year, beyond the nationwide event  this Saturday.

This past April, Americans turned in 552,161 pounds – 276 tons – of prescription drugs at over 5,600 sites operated by the DEA and nearly 4,300 state and local law enforcement partners. In its four previous Take Back events, DEA and its partners took in over 1.5 million pounds – nearly 775 tons – of medication.

“The Governor’s Prevention Partnership commends the leadership of the Attorney General and the DEA in bringing focus to the need for proper disposal of unused medicine in order to reduce the risk of youth drug abuse,” said Jill Spineti, president and CEO of the Governor’s Prevention Partnership. “We also remind parents and caregivers to have open communication with their children and to remain vigilant throughout the teenage years, so that misuse or abuse of medicine can be avoided.”

Video Campaign Seeks to Reduce Texting While Driving

Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen – the father of two teenage boys - has joined a national public service campaign featuring scenes from the award-winning television series “Glee” to help educate young adult drivers on the dangers of texting while driving. The campaign is sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the State Attorneys General, Consumer Protection Agencies, and the Ad Council, with Twentieth Century Fox Television and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

The Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles reported last month that since tougher teen driving laws took effect four years ago, the number of teen drivers killed in crashes dropped from 7 in 2007 to one in 2011. NHTSA reports that in 2010, more than 3,000 people were killed and an additional 416,000 were injured due to distracted driving, which includes texting while driving.

The new television and digital public service announcements (PSAs) employ a catastrophic crash scene from “Glee,” caused by texting and driving, to emphasize that distracted driving can have horrific consequences.

The PSAs direct young adult drivers to the Texting and Driving Prevention campaign web site, StopTextsStopWrecks.org, where teens and young adults can find facts about the impact of texting while driving and tips for how to curb the behavior.  Three key facts are cited:

• Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field. (2009, VTTI)
• A texting driver is 23 times more likely to get into an accident than a non-texting driver. (2009, VTTI)
• Of those killed in distracted-driving-related crashed, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction (18% of fatalities in distraction-related crashes). (NHTSA)

Connecticut law prohibits use of handheld cell phones and texting while driving. Fines range from $125 for a first offense to $400 for a third or subsequent offense.  For teenage drivers, the state DMV will suspend the driver’s license or learner’s permit of a 16- or 17-year-old for 30 days to six months for any conviction of violating a teen driving restriction or using a cell phone or text messaging device while driving. Those teens will have to pay a $175 license restoration fee as well as court fines.

According to a new national survey conducted by the Ad Council, the message may be getting through. Thirty-four percent of respondents said that they never text while driving, a significant increase from 28 percent in 2011. All of the new PSAs will run and air in advertising time and space that is donated by the media.

Additional resources

Website Strives to Combat Underage Drinking

The Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut (WSWC) has launched a website developed to discourage underage drinking.  The initiatives comes following the very successful annual video contest for college students on the subject, with winning public service videos being aired on local television stations. The new website is part of the WSWC’s Community Relations Program, developed to advance the prevention and reduction of underage consumption of alcohol and the misuse of alcohol in Connecticut through community education.  Among the points made:

• Kid’s brains aren’t finished developing until their mid-20’s, so young people may not have the judgment or impulse control to make good decisions all the time, especially regarding alcohol use.  Youth who drink are more likely than adults to consume large quantities of alcohol in a sitting.  In fact, it’s not uncommon for young people to drink until blacking out.
• Young minds have an incredible potential to learn, but heavy drinking during the teen years, even just once a month, can permanently damage learning, memory, decision-making and reasoning abilities and can short-circuit the brain “wiring” needed to become a responsible adult.
• Young drinkers also risk putting themselves on the road to addiction – 40% of those who drink before age 15 become alcoholics while only 7% of those who begin drinking at age 21 develop alcohol problems.

Young Worker Safety Is Connecticut Priority

Three Connecticut state agencies are collaborating to promote young worker safety in Connecticut, where 44 percent of teens work a paying job during the school year, and 12 percent of teens report having a work-related injury.  The Department of Public Health, Department of Education and Department of Labor, working with the Connecticut Young Worker Safety Team, report that young workers, age 15-24, have approximately twice the rate of non-fatal injury as older workers.

Connecticut Intensifies Efforts to Curtail Drunk Driving

Connecticut, 14 other states and part of California require the ignition interlock devices for first-time DUI convictions.  Ignition interlocks gauge blood-alcohol content (BAC) after a person blows into a tube for several seconds. If the BAC surpasses a threshold, the car engine will not start. Interlocks have reduced drunken driving recidivism by a median of 67 percent, according to a 2011 news release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2009 that interlocks "reduce recidivism among both first-time and repeat DWI offenders, with reductions in subsequent DWI arrests ranging from 50 to 90 percent while the interlock is installed on the vehicle."  If mandatory use was more widespread, up to 750 lives could be saved each year, according to a study by the NHTSA, reported in the Hartford Courant  and re-posted on other news sites.  In an effort to further reduce drop drunken driving fatalities, organizations including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and MADD are pushing for more widespread use of ignition interlocks.

Connecticut law, revised earlier this year, requires that those with one conviction must have the device installed on any cars they plan to drive. The interlock must stay on the car for one year after the driver completes a 45-day license suspension.  After a second conviction, the driver is allowed on the road after another 45-day suspension, but the ignition lock must remain on the car for three years.