Maura Lerner of the Star Tribune reports:
In February, staffers at Fairview Health Services in Minneapolis packed up about 1,200 patient records for shipping to a new office across town.
Unfortunately, no one at Fairview has seen the box since.
This week, officials began notifying patients that their health and billing records — including names, birthdates and medical diagnoses — may have been lost.
Officials say there’s no evidence of any misuse of the records, which involved patients admitted to Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina between April 2010 and February 2011.
[…]
Fairview officials have been searching for the box since it was reported missing Feb. 21. By federal law, the hospital has 60 days to notify patients of any security breach involving their patient records, Dahl said.
[…]
The records — printouts of reports used to process insurance claims — had been boxed up at Fairview’s Financial Securing Center, which was scheduled to be moved on Saturday, Feb. 19, to a new office a few miles away.
Then the box disappeared. A staff member reported it missing the next Monday, Dahl said.
[…]
Depending on how many patients sign up, the identity-theft service could cost Fairview about $37,000, or $31 a person, Dahl said.
If the box ever turns up, Fairview says, it will notify patients “as soon as possible.”
Read more in the Star Tribune.