Tune In
a proper document retention and destruction policy.
Additionally, Jay Glunt, a Pittsburgh attorney practicing with Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, comments on the importance of electronic data preservation and destruction polices in e-discovery litigation.
The interview can be found at www.reclamere.com under the heading "In the Media."
Reclamere’s services include electronics recycling, e-discovery, data recovery, IT risk assessments and certified data destruction of computer hard drives.
IDs Successfully Secured
In light of the success of the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB’s) "Secure Your ID Day" event, the BBB will hold an additional "Protect Your ID" education event Sept. 20, 2008.
The first event, held May 3 in 54 U.S. cities, resulted in 250 tons of documents delivered to BBB shredding sites for secure destruction. Atlanta-based Equifax and the National Association for Information Destruction (NAID), Phoenix, also collaborated on the event.
"ID theft is a serious problem claiming 8 million victims last year alone," BBB President and CEO Steve Cole says. "BBB nationally partnered with Equifax and the National Association of Information Destruction to enable people across North America to close a loophole against ID thieves."
The Prognosis on Medical Theft
AHIMA (American Health Information Management Association), based in Chicago, has released a new book titled "Medical Identity Theft."
The organization is touting the book as "the only comprehensive book for HIM (health information management) professionals offering a state-of-the-industry overview of medical identity theft, one of the fastest growing trends to threaten patient safety."
The book is targeted to "HIM professionals working in all health care settings, with vendors, or with privacy and security issues," and has as its goal to help readers "learn steps to limit medical identity theft and appropriate actions for when medical [identity] theft occurs."
Authors Cindy Nichols, Nancy A. Davis, Chrisann K. Lemery and Clarice P. Smith are all credentialed HIM professionals with "first-hand knowledge of this topic," according to a AHIMA news release.
The book is available from AHIMA’s online store at www.ahima.org/store.
The End of the Line
Brian Taylor, editor in chief of Secure Destruction Business magazine, will co-present a session at AHIMA’s (American Health Information Management Association) 80th Annual Convention, which will be Oct. 11-16 in Seattle.
Taylor and Mike Snell, a health care and technology account executive with Securit, based in Toronto, will be presenting "The End of the Line: Information Destruction and the Chain of Custody," Monday, Oct. 13, from 1 to 2 p.m.
The session will look at how health care office managers and records managers protect confidential information from identity thieves and others who would misuse it as it heads toward destruction.
Taylor and Snell say they will emphasize that identity thieves and others wishing to commit fraud often seek and find information they need in the form of end-of-life records that have not been properly destroyed and disposed of by companies and institutions.
Many professional organizations, corporations and other entities have established a chain of custody that renders information unreadable at the end of its life. Health care practices must apply this mentality not just to paper records, but also to information stored electronically on a wide variety of office machines and media storage transfer devices.
More information on the convention is at www.ahima.org/convention/2008/.