Haley Chiropractic of Tacoma experienced an office burglary in May that resulted in the theft of three computers containing 6,000 patients’ records. The records included names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, diagnosis, and health insurance information. One of the computers held some range and motion test data without other personal information. No financial or credit card information was reportedly involved.
As reported to HHS, the burglary occurred May 10.
A notice on the clinic’s website explains that the clinic does not believe there is a high risk of misuse of the information, but encouraged patients to obtain a free credit report, place a fraud alert on their reports, and remain vigilant in monitoring their credit reports. They did not offer them any free credit monitoring services to assist them with that, though.
Although the clinic may believe there is low risk (e.g., the computers were stolen for the hardware and not the information on them), the fact remains that there is enough unencrypted information on the computers to accomplish both identity theft and medical identity theft. Therefore patients should also remain vigilant in examining their insurance Explanation of Benefits statements to ensure that no one has been misusing their insurance information.