Major Patient Privacy Breach Alleged At Palo Alto VA

Benjamin Krause writes:

VA OIG just reported that Palo Alto VA Health Care System unlawfully gave patient data to a private IT company despite employees not having cleared background checks.

The watchdog investigated allegations that the Palo Alto VA informatics chief entered into an illegal agreement with a health care company called Kyron.

VA OIG confirmed allegations that the patient data was given to Kyron prior to its employees getting background checks. It also confirmed that patient data was loaded into the Kyron’s extraction software prior to receiving approval from VA information security officers.