BERKELEY, Calif., March 18 (UPI) -- California-based HMO Kaiser Permanente has filed new motions against a Berkeley woman, accused of posting links to patient information on her blog.
The new motions were added to an existing lawsuit against Elisa D. Cooper, saying she broke a confidentiality agreement, the San Jose Mercury News reported Friday.
Separately the California Department of Managed Health Care, which oversees HMOs, has said it would investigate both her and Kaiser for the security breach, the report said. Cooper has agreed to temporarily stop posting the information.
The former Kaiser Web coordinator acknowledges linking to patient information buried in a technical Web site that is no longer publicly available. She says she did so to point out a security breach by Kaiser and to draw attention to what she feels was her unfair termination from her job.
Last week, Kaiser notified 140 patients in California that personal information including results of routine lab tests had been posted on the Web, the News said. Kaiser has since acknowledged that it constructed the unsecured the technical Web site but said it did not know if patient information was included on it.
