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Report: Health records at risk of disclosure

By TIMES WIRES
Published October 4, 2006

WASHINGTON - Security weaknesses have left millions of elderly, disabled and poor Americans vulnerable to unauthorized disclosure of their medical and personal records, federal investigators said Tuesday.

The Government Accountability Office said it discovered 47 weaknesses in the computer system used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to send and receive bills and to communicate with health care providers.

The agency oversees health care programs that benefit one in every four Americans. Its huge amount of data is transmitted through a computer network that is privately owned and operated.

However, CMS did not always ensure that its contractor followed the agency's security policies and standards, according to the GAO report released Tuesday.

"As a result, sensitive, personally identifiable medical data traversing this network are vulnerable to unauthorized disclosure," the federal investigators said. "And these weaknesses could lead to disruptions in CMS operations."

FCC's media ownership hearings get started in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES - The concentration of media ownership in a few large corporations came under attack Tuesday as the Federal Communications Commission opened hearings on the issue.

"Without diversity in ownership and participation, our democracy is in danger," Rep. Maxine Waters said at the initial hearing held at the University of Southern California.

Waters and others criticized ownership of the Los Angeles Times and KTLA-TV, Channel 5 by Chicago-based Tribune Co. Speakers said the situation stifled competition and diversity of local opinion.

The FCC is reconsidering a number of broadcast ownership rules, including whether a single company should be able to own both a newspaper and television station in the same market.

The last time the agency revisited the rules was in 2003, when it voted to raise the national audience cap for TV station owners, lessen restrictions on how many radio and TV stations a company may own in the same market and allow for cross-ownership of newspapers and broadcast stations in some instances.

The decision sparked a popular revolt, congressional action and a federal appeals court decision that resulted in most of the rules being sent back to the agency for reconsideration.

[Last modified October 4, 2006, 01:04:29]