Nurse files privacy suit against IT sections in stimulus spending law
A New Hampshire nurse filed a lawsuit late last month against the Health and Human Services Department, claiming the health information technology sections of the 2009 stimulus bill violate her privacy protections in federal and state laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the Hippocratic oath.
Beatrice Heghmann, a nurse in Durham, N.H., alleged in the lawsuit that because the health IT sections of the 2009 American Recovery and Investment Act mandate every health care provider in the nation create an electronic health record for all patients, the law puts her personal health information “a mouse-click away from being accessible to an intruder.”