Dem presses regulators to secure health care data

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) on Friday criticized the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for not taking action after a September report revealed the exposure of medical images and sensitive health data of millions of Americans.

Warner wrote in a letter to Roger Severino, the director of HHS’ Office for Civil Rights, that “a long overdue focus on data privacy and information security has come into sharper focus” as the health care sector increasingly utilizes information technology, and criticized the agency for not taking action in response to one specific incident earlier this year.

The Democrat pointed to a ProPublica report published in September that found that medical images and other health data of more than 5 million Americans were unprotected online, and could be viewed easily by anyone with a web browser or free software program.

Warner noted that the images were stored on unsecure picture and archiving communications servers, or PACS, and included more than 100 million medical images, over 22 million patient records and 400,000 social security numbers.

Warner, who serves as the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote that he was “alarmed” that HHS had not taken action to secure the images and data in the wake of the ProPublica report, citing HHS’ “responsibility to protect the sensitive personal medical information of the American people.”