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Vibrant Body Wellness notifies patients after burglar steals hardware with PHI

Posted on April 29, 2016 by Dissent

Seen on Vibrant Body Wellness:

We were robbed! Literally.

Yes, it’s sad but true — our office at Vibrant Body Wellness was broken into during the weekend of March 5th to March 8th.  Things were stolen and no one was physically injured.  We are grateful for that, and have been sorting through the violation and the lessons over the past month.  The support and well wishes from our practice members and from our community members has been heartening, so thank you for reaching out and for your patience as we replace equipment and update security procedures.

Specifically, one of the lingering aspects of the robbery is the consequence of having a laptop and backup hard drive stolen.  Though they were password-protected and the data on them encrypted, according to the law patient privacy was breached with the loss of the equipment.  Below is the letter we are sending out to all our patients and practice members, describing our commitment to providing quality care including protecting your private information.

April 20, 2016

Dear Patient:

We are sending this letter to you as part of Vibrant Body Wellness’s commitment to patient privacy. We take patient privacy very seriously, and it is important to us that you are made fully aware of a potential privacy issue. Our office was robbed during the weekend between March 5th to March 8th, and among the stolen items was an encrypted backup hard drive and a password-protected laptop.  No one was physically injured and we have been assured that the information stored on the electronic equipment is not accessible.  However, we understand that there exists the possibility that your personal information may have been compromised, including your name, address, date of birth, contact information, diagnosis, and billing information.  We reported the incident to the police.  And to date, we have not received any indication that the information has been accessed or used by an unauthorized individual.

We are keenly aware of how important your personal information is to you.  You may place an initial fraud alert on your own credit account with Equifax, who will notify the other two credit bureaus.  The fraud alert does not impact your credit score and provides an extra layer of protection–creditors must contact you directly before issuing credit in your name.  The initial fraud alert lasts for 90 days, is free, and can be renewed for free after 90 days.

https://help.equifax.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/125/~/placing-a-fraud-alert

We understand that this may pose an inconvenience to you. We sincerely apologize and regret that this situation has occurred. Vibrant Body Wellness is committed to providing quality care, including protecting your personal information, and we want to assure you that we have policies and procedures to protect your privacy.  If you have any questions or want get in touch with us, please call (510) 981-8348 or email [email protected].

Sincerely,

Teresa Lau, DC, and your team at Vibrant Body Wellness

The incident was reported to HHS on March 11 as potentially affecting 726 patients, but a report today on East Bay Times puts the number at 600.

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Category: Health DataTheftU.S.

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