[IP] Re: good news?

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

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From: Peter Swire [peter@peterswire.net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 8:35 PM
To: David Farber; ip
Subject: RE: good news?

Dave:

I agree with Esther that this is good news.

In light of our recent thread about HIPAA, I think it is quite likely that a HIPAA requirement helped create this sort of accountability.

Prior to HIPAA, it was common practice in most big hospitals not to have individual log-ins at nurses stations and elsewhere.  Instead, justified by ease-of-use and need for quick response, it was common to have everyone at a station (e.g., several nurses) use the same log-in.

The HIPAA security rule required one log-in per person.  That, in turn, makes it simple to have electronic audit programs of the sort that UCLA apparently has in place.

The same sort of single log-in, with audit, enabled the State Department to pinpoint recently who was looking at Sen. Obama's passport records.

Peter

Prof. Peter P. Swire
C. William O'Neil Professor of Law
   Moritz College of Law
   The Ohio State University
Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
(240) 994-4142, www.peterswire.net

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