For the second time in as many months, United HealthGroup has reported a breach to HHS that involved paper records. Because HHS does not provide a lot of details on its web site, all we know for this latest incident is that 735 individuals were affected by an incident involving “theft, unauthorized access” that occurred on March 2nd but was reported to HHS on August 4. In June, UHG reported another breach of paper records affecting 16,291 that occurred January 26th. I could not find any statements on their site that explained these incidents.
By my count, at least 27 of the 127 breaches on HHS’s web site, or 21%, involve paper records. Not surprisingly, however, paper records incidents account for only 87,703 of the 5,106,362 records breached, or 1%.
In two other newly revealed breaches on HHS’s web site:
Charles Mitchell, MD of Texas reported that 6,873 patients were affected by the theft of a desktop computer that occurred on June 27; and
Trinity Health Corporation Welfare Benefit Plan of Michigan reported that 1,073 individuals were affected by a breach that occurred on March 29, but was not reported to HHS until August 4.