Alaska Corrections contractor denies ACLU claim of massive prisoner health data breach

pKTOOppState GovernmentppOctober 3 2024 by Sage Smiley KYUK Bethel ppThe American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska said that it uncovered a massive violation of medical privacy laws by a software company used by the Alaska Department of Corrections But the software company at the center of the complaint claims thats false and misleading and that there was no breach of data privacyppThe ACLU asserts that the electronic health record system used by DOC was displaying private health information of dozens of incarcerated Alaskans on a training website since at least November 2023ppThe ACLU said that electronic records displayed diagnoses prescriptions and treatments of at least 74 incarcerated Alaskans That included people incarcerated at Lemon Creek Correctional Center in JuneauppThe electronic record system called TechCare pulled the records off of the training site on Tuesday after the ACLU publicly demanded that the DOC and TechCares parent company NaphCare take down the site or make it privateppBut the company now says that its not at fault In a written statement Wednesday NaphCare said that the healthrelated information displayed on the training site was fictitious data put there for training purposes It stated that the training website had inadvertently been made public NaphCare said that its internal investigation found that none of the 74 patient records identified by the ACLU contained DOC patient datappThe ACLU of Alaska said that it filed a complaint with the US Department of Health and Human Services because of the gravity of the breach Federal law requires that the DOC and NaphCare notify the patients whose data was disclosed within 60 daysppReached Wednesday the ACLU of Alaska said that it doesnt plan to retract its federal complaint despite NaphCares claim that it didnt publish any true informationppThe ACLU called NaphCares claim that it published false health care information about real Alaskans extremely troubling and of great concern and said that it hopes NaphCare still notifies individuals who had allegedly fictitious medical statements about them made publicly availableppKYUK is our partner station in Bethel KTOO collaborates with partners across the state to cover important news and to share stories with our audiencesppTop Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every weekppFacebook
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