WSAV reports that Bulloch Pediatrics is warning patients that some of their personal information may have been compromised when a local storage facility was burgled. The practice stored some old insurance records and other payment records in those units.
Some of these records contained patient names, policy holder names, policy numbers and in a few instances, social security numbers.
The burglary was discovered July 12.
The practice does not believe that any records with PHI were removed, but is offering anyone who had their child treated at Bulloch Pediatrics a year of free credit monitoring.
A notice posted on Bulloch Pediatrics’ website says:
Bulloch Pediatrics is committed to protecting patient personal information. This
commitment includes notifying you if we believe there is any possibility that someone might have had access to your personal information.On July 12, 2014, it was discovered that someone broke into several locked storage units at a local storage facility. Two (2) of these locked units were units we leased. The break-in occurred between mid-May, 2014, and July 12, 2014. A few pieces of medical equipment, and shelving were stolen from the units we used. We also kept old insurance payment records and other payment records in the storage units. Some of these records contained patient names, policy holder names, policy numbers and in a few instances, social security numbers.
To the best of our knowledge none of these records were removed from the storage units. There is nothing to indicate that the person who broke into the storage units was looking for these records, or even knew that the records were stored in the unit. We notified the police as soon as the break-in was discovered. No one has been apprehended.
Although there have not been any reports of these records being stolen, or any information from the records being improperly used, as a precaution we have arranged for one (1) year of free credit monitoring. If your child was treated by Bulloch Pediatrics, and you are interested in our free credit monitoring offer, or have any questions, please call 1-877-730-7454 and ask to speak with the credit monitoring department. We can also explain how you can have a “fraud alert” placed on your credit file, and obtain a copy of your credit report.
Once again, we apologize for any inconvenience. We will continue to place a high priority on the privacy of your personal information.
Update: This was added to HHS’s breach tool on September 17th with the notation that it affected 10,000 patients. The date of incident was reported as May 18th.