IT solutions provider SynerMed has been notifying patients whose PHI was on a laptop stolen from an employee’s car. The PHI in question was from members of Inland Valleys IPA. According to their notification letter, the laptop was stolen on the night of April 14 or morning of April 15, while the car was parked…
Month: June 2013
Sutter Health East Bay Region reports breach after police uncover patient information during investigation
Sutter Health East Bay Region is notifying patients of a breach they first learned about on May 23. According to their letter, a copy of which was provided to the California Attorney General’s Office, on May 23, they were notified by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office that patient information had been discovered as part of an…
HHS updates its breach tool
While I was away, HHS updated its breach tool again. As is often the case, some of their new entries are breaches we knew about already: University of Florida University of Rochester Medical Center & Affiliates Presbyterian Anesthesia Associates PA/E-dreamz Comfort Dental Regional Medical Center Piedmont HealthCare, P.A/E-dreamz Sonoma Valley Hospital Dent Neurologic Group, LLP…
Ah, that pesky human error
Here are some breach reports you won’t see on HHS’s breach tool because they involve only a few patients, but they all involve human error by CareFirst employees who were mailing out information or claims: One insured’s payment receipt with Social Security number was mailed to another individual; One person’s claims information, including medical details was…
LabCorp computer with PHI stolen
LabCorp (Laboratory Corporation of America) has suffered yet another breach involving patient data. On April 19, the firm notified the Maryland Attorney General’s Office that a computer tagged for destruction had been stolen from one of its facilities in North Carolina. The computer contained patient names, date of birth, and Medicare subscriber numbers. LabCorp’s notification…
States’ Hospital Data for Sale Puts Privacy in Jeopardy
There was some great reporting by Jordan Robertson of Bloomberg while I was away: Hospitals in the U.S. pledge to keep a patient’s health background confidential. Yet states from Washington to New York are putting privacy at risk by selling records that can be used to link a person’s identity to medical conditions using public information. Consider Ray Boylston,…