Bon Secours Health System, Inc. (“Bon Secours”) and its affiliates are committed to maintaining the privacy and security of our patient information. This notice is to inform our patients of an incident involving one of our vendor’s handling of some patients’ information.
On June 14, 2016, Bon Secours discovered that files containing patient information inadvertently had been left accessible by one of our vendors, R-C Healthcare Management. While attempting to adjust their computer network settings from April 18, 2016 to April 21, 2016, R-C Healthcare inadvertently made files located within their computer network accessible via the internet. When Bon Secours discovered this issue, Bon Secours notified R-C Healthcare of this issue so that information could no longer be accessed via the internet. Upon receiving the notification, R-C Healthcare immediately took steps to secure the information so that it could no longer be accessed via the internet.
We, at Bon Secours, immediately began an internal investigation into this matter. Our investigation determined that the files that were available via the internet may have contained patients’ names, health insurers’ names, health insurance identification numbers, limited clinical information, social security numbers, and in some instances, bank account information. Medical records were not made available via the internet and medical care has not and will not be affected.
This incident did not affect all Bon Secours patients.
We have no knowledge that the information contained within the files has been misused in any way. However, as a precaution, we began mailing letters to affected patients on August 12, 2016, and established a dedicated call center to answer patients’ questions. If you believe that you are affected but do not receive a letter by September 2, 2016, please contact 1-888-522-8917, Monday through Friday, between the hours of 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. We also recommend that affected patients review the statements that they receive from their health insurance providers. If patients see that their insurer has been charged for services or procedures that they did not receive, they should contact their insurer to notify the insurer of their concerns. Unfortunately, Bon Secours is not able to contact the insurer on the patient’s behalf.
We deeply regret any concern this may cause our patients. To help prevent something like this from happening in the future, we are reinforcing standards with our vendors to ensure our patients’ information is securely maintained.
SOURCE: BonSecours.com
655,000 patients are reportedly being notified.
For previous breach incidents involving Bon Secours, see these posts.