On August 17, 2023, SysInformation Healthcare Services, LLC, d/b/a EqualizeRCM (“SysInformation”) notified HHS of a breach. The firm, a business associate that provides revenue and billing cycle management services, reported that 501 patients had been affected. That number is generally interpreted as a placeholder marker when the entity has not yet figured out the real number affected. In Protenus’s annual Breach Barometer report, the SysInformation breach was one of the more than 50 entities with a marker that had not been updated by the end of 2023.
In April 2024, SysInformation notified the Vermont Attorney General of the breach and provided a template notification letter. The template letter appears to have been sent on behalf of an unnamed client. The letter explained that an attack had occurred between June 3 and June 18, 2023, and abnormal activity was detected on June 18. SysInformation did not explain whether this was a ransomware attack or some other type of incident but did state that patient data had been accessed or acquired.
The April 26, 2024 letter did not explain why SysInformation took from June 2023 until the end of April 2024 to notify those affected. A check of HHS’s breach site shows that as of the April 26, 2024 letter, SysInformation still had not updated its report to HHS regarding the number of patients affected.
On July 1, 2024, SysInformation issued a press release on behalf of one of their clients, Atlanta Perinatal Consultants, LLP, d/b/a Georgia Perinatal Consultants (“GPC”). The press release contains much of the same information as in the April 26 letter template, but the press release specifically mentioned that this was a ransomware attack.
The press release also states that GPC was notified of the breach on May 6, 2024. Did SysInformation notify GPC at all prior to May 6, 2024?
Although the information varied by individual, the information of affected GPC individuals was reported to potentially include name, date of birth, health insurance information, medical history/treatment information, and in very few cases Social Security number, email address, and telephone or fax numbers. SysInformation has reported that there is no evidence to indicate that any GPC patient’s driver’s license number, financial account information, or address information was compromised.
The notification to HHS still hasn’t been updated, so we do not know the total number of patients affected or what clients other than GPC have been affected by the incident.
DataBreaches is not aware of any group claiming responsibility for this particular attack or leaking it on any site.