Phoenix, Arizona – March 3, 2017 – Saliba’s Extended Care Pharmacy (“Saliba’s Pharmacy”) is notifying certain patients of the inadvertent e-mailing of December 2016 invoices, which contained patient names, addresses, account balances, and may have also included a description and dosage amount of prescription or over-the-counter medication or other pharmacy items provided by Saliba’s Pharmacy in December 2016, to the wrong patients. While Saliba’s Pharmacy believes the risk of misuse of this information is very low, it is nevertheless providing notification to ensure its patients are aware of the incident so that they may take steps to protect their information should they feel it is appropriate to do so.
On January 16, 2017, Saliba’s Pharmacy discovered that on January 12, 2017, a copy of the December 2016 patient invoices was inadvertently emailed, via Saliba’s Pharmacy’s encrypted email platform, and thereafter opened by three other Saliba’s Pharmacy patients or their Personal Representatives.
“We take this incident, and the privacy and security of our patients’ information, very seriously,” John Saliba, President, stated. “We terminated the employee that committed this error, have provided staff with additional training, and reviewed our policies and procedures to better protect against an event like this from happening again.”
Saliba’s Pharmacy is mailing letters to its patients on March 3, 2017. Saliba’s Pharmacy is also disclosing this incident to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Saliba’s Pharmacy emphasizes that the invoices were sent to three known Saliba’s Pharmacy patients or their Personal Representatives, that Saliba’s Pharmacy is unaware of any actual or attempted misuse of its patients’ information, and that these invoices did not contain patient Social Security numbers, financial account information, or health insurance information. Nevertheless, Saliba’s Pharmacy encourages its patients to review their Saliba’s Pharmacy account statements, health insurance account records, and explanation of benefits forms for suspicious activity, and to immediately report all suspicious activity to the institution that issued the record.
To better assist its patients, Saliba’s Pharmacy has established a toll-free privacy inquiry line to answer questions. This privacy inquiry line is available Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. MST at 844-789-6860.
SOURCE: Saliba’s Extended Care Pharmacy
Note: This incident was reported to HHS as affecting 6,599 patients.