Chelsea Jensen reports:
Thousands of patients who filled prescriptions at Kaiser Permanente’s Kona pharmacy may have had some of their personal information compromised earlier this year.
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii is notifying a total of 6,600 patients who filled prescriptions at the Kailua-Kona pharmacy on Hualalai Road between Dec. 31, 2012, and Aug. 31, 2013, of the possible exposure, Kaiser spokeswoman Laura Lott told West Hawaii Today on Friday.
That number includes 2,600 patients whose prescription paperwork was in a box that fell out of a private courier vehicle in Honolulu, as well as 4,000 patients who had prescriptions electronically filled during that time period that may have been printed and included in that box.
Read more on West Hawaii Today.
A statement on Kaiser Permanente’s web site reads:
Important privacy information for Hawaii members and patients
On Wednesday, January 7, 2015, a box of documents being transported to storage on Oahu via contracted courier from Kaiser Permanente’s Kona Medical Office, spilled from the courier’s moving vehicle. Swift action by Kaiser Permanente employees allowed the retrieval of many of the documents, but unfortunately, not all were recovered.
The missing documents are expired prescriptions filled between December 31, 2012 and August 3, 2013 at the Kaiser Permanente Kona Pharmacy. Specific patient information on all prescriptions includes: name, address, date of birth, medical record number, and the type and amount of specific medications. Additional types of identification, including driver’s license number or Social Security number (SSN), may have been included on prescriptions for controlled substances.
We are taking this matter very seriously and will inform each of the individuals whose information may have been involved in the incident. As part of our outreach we are advising affected individuals to contact one of the national credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion) to place a fraud alert on their file. We will also be offering credit monitoring to those members whose prescriptions might have contained a SSN or driver’s license number.
Kaiser Permanente takes the protection of our members’ personal and health information very seriously, and we apologize for this occurrence. We are asking members with questions to contact our Customer Service Center Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. at (800) 996-5955 (Neighbor Island) or (808) 432-5955 (Oahu) and select option 8.