I never envisioned a connection between my profession—HIPAA consulting, writing, teaching, giving legal opinions, and testifying as an expert witness—and my investing. I have been investing in gold and silver for almost a decade, which has turned out to be a better place to put my money than stocks, bonds, or other dollar-denominated investments. And I have purchased more silver than gold. Silver, known as the poor man’s gold because it sells at a fraction of the price of gold, has outperformed gold over that period. Other than its investment value, gold is useful only as jewelry and in a few limited industrial applications, while silver has manifold industrial applications in addition to jewelry. Almost all the gold ever mined is still in existence somewhere on the planet, whereas most silver mined has been consumed in various industrial applications. As of the date of this blog posting, gold is selling for $1,787.10 an ounce, and silver is going for $34.84 an ounce. Note that neither this blog nor I purport to give investment advice. If you are interested in investing in precious metals, you must do your own research. Two good research tools for precious metals investing are Independent Living (800-800-1865) and The Morgan Report.
In the health care arena, silver has important uses, such as its incorporation into wound dressings to treat external infections and its use as an antiseptic and disinfectant in medical appliances. Silver is also promoted within alternative medicine in the form of colloidal silver (silver in a liquid suspension), thought to help cure infections and other diseases, although no scientific studies have proven silver to do so. Of course, a skeptic could expect that the pharmaceutical companies have little interest in sponsoring a study that finds a natural substance to be effective in treating a health problem.
So what in the world does silver have to do with HIPAA? One of the latest HIPAA breaches involves stealing PHI for its silver content, not for its ability to provide information to use to commit identity theft.
According to a recent item in the Baltimore Sun, Baltimore police are looking for a suspect who stole thousands of x-rays from Saint Joseph Medical Center in order to extract silver from the x-rays. Silver is used to coat x-rays to enhance the images. The hospital had identified the x-rays for destruction under its retention policy, but they had not been destroyed when the suspect stole them. This incident points out that a covered entity must safeguard PHI until it is actually destroyed and that one may steal PHI for another reason than obtaining the data. By the way, if you do not have an effective retention policy that includes a good destruction schedule, see the forthcoming 4th edition of my Medical Records Retention Guide and the forthcoming 5th edition of my HIPAA Documents Resource Center CD, both soon to be available on this website.
Anyway, hi-ho, Silver, and away!
