Zach Benoit reports:
The discovery earlier this year that a binder full of client information had been lost or destroyed in 2013 has prompted the Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch to fortify efforts to ensure that such information stays safe by strengthening confidentiality practices and enhancing education efforts.
“We want to make sure that if there’s any trust lost with any of our families, with any of the people we work with, we want to regain that,” said Shawn Byrne, YBGR’s chief operating officer for community-based services.
On Monday, the ranch — a Billings-based nonprofit organization that provides mental health treatment to children and teens with emotional issues and their families — posted a legal notice in the Billings Gazette informing its clients that it had learned in late January that its Community Based Services On-Call Binder was missing.
Read more on Billings Gazette. The legal notice reads (formatting guessed at by me):
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE RE: Public Announcement
Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch (“YBGR”) is a healthcare provider with its principal business located in Billings, Montana. We offer this press release for the benefit of our clients and the media.
On January 27, 2014, we learned that YBGR’s Community Based Services (“CBS”) On-Call Binder was missing. The information included in the binder did not contain social security numbers or any financial information, such as credit card or other source of payment information. It did include client names, addresses, phone numbers, the CBS program he or she was enrolled in and corresponding client number, date of birth, date of admission to the CBS program, his or her treatment professionals, parent names and the school the client attends.
We conducted an extensive investigation and determined that the Binder was either destroyed or misplaced sometime during the summer of 2013.
YBGR has no reason to believe that any personal information was accessed or used inappropriately, and we believe that the likelihood of such misuse is low. Nonetheless, out of an abundance of caution, and in accordance with federal law, we are providing the media with notice of this incident, in addition to individualized notice to every client who might have been affected so that our clients might take steps to protect themselves from potential harm resulting from this incident.
As part of YBGR’s commitment to protect the identity of all persons potentially affected by this incident, YBGR would like to direct its clients’ attention to the following actions they can take to protect against the possibility of identity theft:
(1) Contact any one of the fraud departments of any one of the three major credit bureaus to place a fraud alert on your credit file. As soon as the credit bureau confirms your fraud alert, the other two credit bureaus will be automatically notified to place fraud alerts, and all three credit reports will be sent to you free of charge. The contact information for the credit bureaus is as follows: Equifax:(866)640-2273; Experian:(800)397-3742; TransUnion:(800)680-7289.
(2) Review your credit report, and your child’s if he or she has one, carefully. When you and/or your child receive your credit reports, look them over for accounts you did not open or for inquiries from creditors that you did not initiate. Be sure to review your personal information, such as home address and Social Security number, to make certain it is accurate.
(3) Report suspicious credit activity. If you do find suspicious activity on your credit reports or credit account statements, alert your credit account companies and the credit bureaus. Also, call your local police or sheriff’s office and file a police report of identity theft. Be sure to obtain a copy of the police report you file-you may need to give copies of the police report to creditors to clear up your records.
(4) Save this notice. If necessary, you can provide this notice as proof that you have reason to believe you are a victim of identity theft.
(5) For more information about identity theft, you may contact the U.S. Federal Trade Commission toll-free at (877) 438-4338 or online at www.consumer.gov/idtheft.
YBGR notified by letter all persons whose child’s information may have been contained in the binder that was destroyed or misplaced. If you have any concerns about your private information, please call YBGR HIPAA Privacy Officer at 1-800-726-6755 ext. 2801.
Although YBGR believes that the probability that any client’s private information was compromised is highly unlikely, we wanted to raise awareness of this remote possibility so that our clients can take steps they believe appropriate to protect themselves from any fraudulent activity. As a result of this incident, we immediately discontinued the practice of keeping client information in our On-Call Binder and have established a different on-call system to better protect our clients’ private information.
YBGR also recommends that our patients notify their treating physicians, therapists, or counselors, if they have one, of this incident and inquire as to whether they have encountered any unusual activity concerning their treatment. Please have them contact YBGR about any questions or concerns they may have. They can contact YBGR’s HIPAA Privacy Officer, at 1-800-726-6755, ext. 2801.