Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Watchdog Launches Probe Amid Wave Of Relentlessly Efficient Telemarketing Schemes Phishing For Medicare Data
The Associated Press: Feds To Track How Private Medicare Info Gets To Marketers
A government watchdog plans to launch a nationwide probe into how telemarketers may be getting hold of seniors’ personal Medicare information, a red flag for potential fraud and waste. An official with the Health and Human Services inspector general's office told The Associated Press the audit will be announced next week. It would follow a narrower probe which found that an electronic system designed for pharmacies to verify Medicare coverage was being used for searches that appeared to have nothing to do with filling prescriptions. The official spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a formal announcement. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 2/14)
In other health technology news —
Stat: Health Apps Collecting Sensitive Data Need More Transparent Terms Of Service, Law Experts Argue
We’ve all been there. We’ve downloaded a new app or visited a website that requires us to enter personal data and immediately been presented with a long agreement that we have to agree to before using the service. But a new policy paper published Thursday in Science argues that these health tech companies don’t go far enough with giving consumers a say when terms of service are changed, limiting how much control people have over their personal data. (Chakradhar, 2/13)
