From their press release:
On December 2, 2016, Integrated Rehab Consultants(“IRC”) was contacted by a healthcare researcher regarding IRC data that was present on a public repository. IRC immediately commenced an investigation and determined that an IRC vendor provided IRC data to another third-party vendor who then inadvertently uploaded the data to a public repository. IRC began working with its vendor to ensure that the data was immediately removed from the repository and to understand the full nature and scope of the event. In the fall of 2017, IRC became aware that the data on the repository may have been accessed by an additional party(ies) beyond the healthcare researcher. IRC continued its investigation of the incident and ultimately determined that it could not conclusively rule out unauthorized access to the data by another third party(ies). The information that was visible on the public repository includes IRC patients’ full name, visit date, medical provider information, date of birth, gender, visit status, address, admission date, treatment location, appointment visit ID, diagnosis codes, and procedure code.
IRC has worked diligently to determine the full nature and scope of this incident. While, to date, IRC has no evidence of actual or attempted misuse of personal health information that was present on the public repository, it will be providing affected individuals with written notice of this incident in an abundance of caution.
IRC has offered potentially impacted individuals access to credit monitoring and identity restoration services for one year without charge. IRC is encouraging potentially impacted individuals to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud, to review account statements, and to monitor credit reports and explanation of benefits forms for suspicious activity. IRC’s written notification to potentially impacted individuals includes information on obtaining a free credit report annually from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com, calling 877-322-8228, or contacting the three major credit bureaus directly at: Equifax, P.O. Box 105069, Atlanta, GA, 30348, 800-525-6285, www.equifax.com; Experian, P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013, 888-397-3742, www.experian.com; TransUnion, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016, 800-680-7289, www.transunion.com. Potentially impacted individuals may also find information regarding identity theft, fraud alerts, security freezes and the steps they may take to protect their information by contacting the credit bureaus, the Federal Trade Commission or their state Attorney General. The Federal Trade Commission can be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580; www.identitytheft.gov; 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); and TTY: 1-866-653-4261. Instances of known or suspected identity theft should also be reported to law enforcement or the individual’s state Attorney General. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is aware of this incident and IRC will also be providing notice to appropriate state regulators, as required by law.
IRC has set up a call center to answer questions from those notified of this incident. The dedicated assistance line may be reached at 888-894-8404, Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. EST.
SOURCE Integrated Rehab Consultants
So when were the data first exposed on a public repository? How or what did IRC find out in in the fall of 2017 that they couldn’t have determined in December 2016?
Is this being reported to OCR?
And who was the healthcare researcher?