On November 11, 2024, Humboldt Independent Practice Association (Humboldt IPA) submitted a breach report to HHS that used a placeholder of 500 for the number of patients affected. All we knew from HHS’s entry was that it was some kind of hacking or IT incident involving protected health information located in email. The California entity’s submission to HHS also indicated they were reporting as a healthcare provider and that no business associate was involved.
On February 7, Humboldt IPA provided a substitute notice on its website. It begins:
Humboldt IPA is a third-party that administers health plans and healthcare services on behalf of providers. As such, Humboldt IPA received your PHI from one or more of those providers.
But they reported the incident to HHS as a provider and had indicated that no business associate was involved. That seems a bit confusing, doesn’t it?
According to their notice, on June 28, 2024, Humboldt became aware of a phishing campaign “designed to appear as a legitimate communication from one of our partners.” The campaign was apparently successful, with an unauthorized actor gaining access to a single email account between June 26, 2024 and July 1, 2024.
The email account contained protected health information (PHI) on an as-yet undisclosed number of patients. The types of information included first and last name, in combination with one or more of the following: contact information (such as mailing address, emergency contact information, email, telephone number); date of birth, driver’s license, medical diagnosis or condition; and health insurance information.
The full notice can be read at https://humboldtipa.com/wrd-prs/notice-of-data-breach/. Like the vast majority of notices, it states that they are not aware of any reports of identity fraud or fraudulent activity involving the information of affected patients as a result of the incident. It then describes what individuals can do to protect themselves and what Humboldt is offering in support.
But What Good Does a Substitute Notice Do in This Kind of Situation?
When business associates make notifications on behalf of their clients — whether those clients be healthcare providers, businesses, schools, or any other entity — the recipient of the letter will generally not recognize the business associate’s name and will only recognize the name of the provider, business, or school that gave the business associate their information.
But in many cases, the business associate will not be able to find or obtain addresses for all those they are obligated to notify. In those cases, they may do what Humboldt IPA did — post a substitute notice on their website or a legal notice in local media.
Humboldt IPA’s subsitute notice says, “We were unable to locate all the addresses of the individuals whose information was involved. As a result, we are issuing this public notice to inform all potentially impacted individuals.”
But how would anyone know to look at their website or read their notice and think it might apply to them if they didn’t already know that their provider uses that business associate?
Even if there was a list of provider names on Humboldt’s notice (which there wasn’t), most people would not know to look at that notice. So are all the providers also posting notices on their websites to alert patients or former patients of this incident? Should they be?