Bob Norberg reports:
Personal information for 699 former residents of a Sebastopol drug and alcohol treatment facility was on a physician’s laptop computer that was stolen in New York, officials said Friday.
The theft occurred Nov. 18 at a New York hotel, said Kristen Hayes, a spokeswoman for Azure Acres, the Sebastopol facility.
The information was confined to the names and billing rate information for the former patients, Hayes said.
The facility is now notifying the former patients, who will need to monitor their financial records, although Hayes said given the limited amount of data that was on the computer, unauthorized access is not likely.
“There is some billing information as to rates, but not addresses, nor Social Security numbers,” Hayes said. “Still, the personal nature of the information, is something they are notified about.”
Read more on PressDemocrat.com
There is no statement on Azure Acres home page at this time, but there is this prominent notice towards the bottom of the home page:
If you received a letter from Azure Acres dated January 2011 and would like additional information, please call (855) 252-3784.
Azure Acres appears to be a HIPAA-covered entity, so I expect we’ll see this incident show up on HHS’s breach tool sooner or later.