Brigham hospital has been faxing women's personal health information to investment bank

Yet Another Faxing Foul Up.

This time, the well-known Brigham and Women's hospital has been regularly sending a Boston-area investment bank personal health information about recently dicharged maternity patients. The information includes name, address, social security number, religion, attending physician and whether the woman/baby tested positive for STDs. The faxed forms apparently are for billing purposes:

BostonHerald.com - Local / Regional News: Brigham sent bank new moms' records

The faxed data was patient billing information. Hospitals typically send this type of information to medical supply companies for products for patients. The information is used to bill the patient’s insurance company.

While the accidental faxes are the bigger issue, perhaps someone can tell me why a billing form has to include the patient's religion, social security number and STD status? That makes two serious privacy issues.

Read more at BostonHerald.com. Thanks to HIPAA Blog for the link.

Technorati tags: Privacy :: Health Information :: Faxes :: Incident :: Hospital :: Personal Health Information