Fort Worth medical clinic spends $15,000 notifying patients of theft

Jan Jarvis reports:

In June, employees at a Fort Worth allergy clinic discovered that the office door had been kicked in and four computers containing patients’ personal information including Social Security numbers and birth dates had been stolen.

This week Fort Worth Allergy and Asthma Associates spent $15,000 mailing letters notifying the clinic’s 25,000 patients of the burglary. The stolen computer database also contained patient’s addresses and diagnoses, Dr. Robert Rogers said.

“In terms of sensitive clinical information that could be taken, we’re an allergy clinic so I don’t think there was anything embarrassing taken,” he said. “It’s bad enough that they did get identity information like Social Security numbers.”