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Saturday, April 17, 2010
Ind. Law - New law establishes procedures for AG to seize, secure, store, and destroy abandoned or at risk health records and other records containing personally identifying information
Remember this ILB entry from Nov. 14, 2009, headed "Boxes of medical files found abandoned in South Bend"? It was followed by this ILB entry from Dec. 11, 2009, quoting a representative of the Indiana Attorney General explaining that a 2006 and a 2009 law gave the office authority to deal with those that caused these problems.
Today Kevin Allen of the South Bend Tribune has a story headlined "Abandoned medical records led to new law: Attorney General says Tribune article alerted his office to problem." Some quotes:
SOUTH BEND — Abandoned medical records discovered last fall in a downtown office building were the impetus for a change in state law, Attorney General Greg Zoeller said Friday.Senate Enrolled Act 356, which the General Assembly approved during its session this year, established procedures for the attorney general to obtain and secure records with personal-identity information and return them to their owners or destroy them.
Zoeller said a Tribune article, which reported that 21 boxes of records were found in a former doctor's office at 328 N. Michigan St., made his office aware of the potentially larger issue of what to do with sensitive documents that are abandoned.
Such situations could become more common as more offices transfer paper documents to digital systems, he said.
"It will become more of a problem if we don't get out in front of it," Zoeller said during a news conference at the St. Joseph County Public Library downtown.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 17, 2010 10:20 AM
Posted to Indiana Law