MASSDEVICE ON CALL — Governor Deval Patrick threw his weight behind a repeal of state’s employer insurance mandate, a move that would eliminate the Commonwealth’s employer insurance rule to leave the less-strict federal mandate in its place.
Patrick said the state will "be fine" as long as the federal delays of the employer mandate don’t exceed 1 year, according to a report by the Boston Globe.
New programs keep close tabs on doctors performance
U.S. hospitals are increasingly trying to track doctors’ performance, a push that is ruffling many physicians’ feathers. The new digital tracking systems evaluate decision-making and patient outcomes, informing doctors if they are under-performing and encouraging them to improve.
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WellPoint slammed with a $1.7M fine for data breach
The WellPoint insurance organization must pay $1.7 million in fines after personal information of more than 600,000 of its members was found on the internet, a clear violation of HIPAA laws. The department of Health & Human Services said the security breach exposed personal data from Oct. 2009 to March 2010, including social security numbers, names, dates of birth, addresses, telephone numbers and health information.
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Google co-founder teams up with life science orgs for Alzheimer’s research
Google co-founder Sergey Brin and personal genetics company 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki kick-started a big data foundation in support of Alzheimer’s research. The project, a collaboration with the Alzheimer’s Assn., will make whole genome sequences of 800 people available to a network of researchers. The Brin-Wojcicki Foundation collaborated with the National Institutes of Health on the large neuroimaging database that will be the basis of the research initiative.
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Cloud storage is a top concern for healthcare professionals
In today’s healthcare settings, cloud computing is the number one concern among healthcare IT professionals, according to a survey from the Ponemon Institute. In a poll of 781 IT and data security personnel, 33% said they need protected patient information to do their jobs, but they do not fully understand data security. Also, 23% of those surveyed admitted to intentionally unlocking some mandatory security settings on mobile devices.
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