For the second time in six months, Louisiana State University (LSU) has disclosed a breach involving patient information. Willard Woods of KSLA reports:
A database error in a computer entry field led to the disclosure of personal health information of 8,330 LSU Health patients.
The hospital says it notified each patient on Wednesday of the release of personal information and that each patient’s bill contained incorrect information. A hospital news release says no Social Security numbers, birth dates, or financial account numbers were disclosed.
Officials say they do not believe any of its patients’ financial information was compromised.
The problem centered around an LSU Health contractor that prints and mails doctors’ bills on behalf of LSU Health. Siemens Healthcare, of Malvern, Pennsylvania, says an error in one computer field caused the names and treatment information for one patient to align incorrectly with another person’s mailing address.
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Finding LSU’s public notice proved to be no easy task, as it does not appear on LSU Health’s main site as far as I can tell, and it took a while before a Google search revealed that there was a statement on LSUShreveport’s site:
Patients Notified of Unintentional Release of Personal Health Information
Siemens Healthcare, a company that prints and mails doctors’ bills on behalf of LSU Health Shreveport, and LSU Health Shreveport are notifying patients of a computer issue which resulted in an unintentional disclosure of personal health information. No social security numbers, birthdates or financial account numbers were disclosed, so officials do not believe any financial information has been compromised. Corrected billing statements were reissued and patients have been advised to destroy the incorrect statements. Notification letters went out to all affected patients May 15.
The issue was discovered when LSU began receiving calls from patients saying their bills were incorrect. After an investigation, it was discovered that an error had occurred in one computer data entry field. When printing statements, this error caused the names and treatment information for one patient to incorrectly align with another person’s mailing address. This affected the statements for 8,330 patients.
LSU Health Shreveport and Siemens have identified the source problem and taken steps to ensure that this issue will not happen again.
The LSU Health Shreveport Physician Billing Office has set up a toll-free response line for any questions or concerns that patients may have. The number to call is1-888-824-0379 or 318-675- 7550. It is staffed Monday through Friday from 8 to 4 pm.
Back in December 2012, LSU Health disclosed that a hospital employee obtained financial information on 416 patients and used the information to others to create fake checks and credit cards. LSU learned of that breach from law enforcement, who believed that the breach may have begun in January 2012. In this case, it seems, they also learned of the breach from outside the organization. While it’s all too common for entities not to self-discover breaches, it does point out the importance of letting entities know promptly if you discover a problem with your records or statements.