TriHealth in Cincinnati has issued the following notice about a mailing error that resulted in communications – including billing statements – being sent to patients’ previous addresses rather than their current addresses. The error was attributed to a “software glitch.”
January 20, 2017
In late November of 2016, TriHealth discovered a software glitch inadvertently replaced the current mailing addresses of 1,126 TriHealth patients with a previous address we had on file for them. This caused TriHealth billing statements and other correspondence to be sent to the former address of those people impacted by this error. Since TriHealth is unable to determine if the billing statements and other correspondence reached patients at their current address, we are notifying affected patients of this incident.
Billing statements, reminder letters and other correspondence sent out by TriHealth to those affected took place from November 15, 2015 through January 12, 2017. The mailings may have contained patient name, place of service, visit dates, descriptions of services, financial charges, payments and adjustments, balance and amount due or appointment reminders. The mailings did not contain patient social security number, credit card number or any other financial institution information.
Although TriHealth has no reason to believe that the patient information has been misused in any way, patients can obtain a free credit report once a year to monitor their credit activity with the credit reporting companies. If you are interested, please go to www.annualcreditreport.com for more information and to request your credit report.
Please be assured that TriHealth takes patient privacy very seriously. The addresses of the affected patients have been corrected in TriHealth’s computer system and the software problem has been fixed. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience this may have caused.
If you believe you may have been affected by this error, or have any questions, please contact Katrina Trimble or Mary Lopez in the TriHealth Privacy Office at 513.569.6507 or toll free at 1-866-240-7690.
Sincerely,
Katrina L. Trimble
Chief Privacy Officer