A health privacy bill that would require healthcare providers in Utah to notify patients when their personal information has been or may be shared with government programs passed its first legislative hurdle Nov. 14, according to a Salt Lake Tribune report.
The bill was pitched by Sen. Stuart Reid (R-Utah) following a state Medicaid breach this spring, in which information on 780,000 patients was sent to a poorly protected state server that was hacked. A large portion of the patients had no connection to Medicaid — they were privately insured or on Medicare — but their information was still exposed. Sen. Reid promised to back this bill in June.
According to the report, the bill directs the Utah Department of Health to draft model disclosure language and to verify that providers' privacy notices comply. It also subjects the Utah Department of Technology Services to routine audits to ensure its servers are up to national security standards.
The Health and Human Services Committee passed the bill unanimously.
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The bill was pitched by Sen. Stuart Reid (R-Utah) following a state Medicaid breach this spring, in which information on 780,000 patients was sent to a poorly protected state server that was hacked. A large portion of the patients had no connection to Medicaid — they were privately insured or on Medicare — but their information was still exposed. Sen. Reid promised to back this bill in June.
According to the report, the bill directs the Utah Department of Health to draft model disclosure language and to verify that providers' privacy notices comply. It also subjects the Utah Department of Technology Services to routine audits to ensure its servers are up to national security standards.
The Health and Human Services Committee passed the bill unanimously.
More Articles on Utah's Medicaid Data Breach:
Utah Sen. Stuart Reid Wants Transparency in Providers' Data-Sharing PracticesSecurity Protocol Violation Caused Utah Health Data Breach
Utah Medicaid Data Breach Worsens; Nearly 182K Individuals Affected