As a follow-up to a breach previously covered on this blog: Angeline Austin, who stole over 800 Troy Hospital (Troy Regional Medical Center) patients’ identity information for use in a tax refund fraud scheme while employed by Southern Records Management, was sentenced to 65 months in prison.
Of note, the tax refund fraud/ID theft had serious consequences for at least one victim, who lost his top secret security clearance because his credit report was affected. The loss of his security clearance cost him a good-paying job, and his entire family has been affected by the incident.
At trial, the hospital’s CEO informed the court that they also feared that any potential monetary penalties by the state or HHS over the breach could severely impact the hospital’s ability to operate. Looking at HHS’s breach tool, I see that there is no summary of the incident added to the breach tool, suggesting that HHS/OCR’s investigation into the case is still open.