The following press release was issued Nov. 22 and refers to a VA incident originally discussed in a previous blog entry. Last month, the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center discovered a handwritten log book with 1,950 patients’ names and the last four digits of their Social Security numbers was missing from a respiratory laboratory. After an extensive…
Category: Health Data
(follow-up) Man admits tax scam using stolen patient data
Giovanna Fabiano reports the latest developments in a fraud scheme that victimized some of the most fragile among us: A(n Englewood) city man pleaded guilty Monday to participating in a scheme to file false tax returns, using information stolen from adult and pediatric cancer patients, among other victims. Jason Eaton, 28, told U.S. District Court…
OCR: Data Breaches Double Since July
Dom Nicastro writes: The number of entities reporting breaches of unsecured protected health information (PHI) affecting 500 or more individuals is close to reaching the 200 mark. As of Tuesday, November 30, the number of entities reporting breaches to the government’s HIPAA privacy and security enforcer hit 197. The number of entities—listed on the Office…
WA: ID theft bonanza left unsecured at state building
Although I covered this incident on DataBreaches.net, I’m including it here, too, as health-related data were reportedly involved. Tracy Vedder reports: TACOMA, Wash. — When we handed Lyle Lippel a set of documents that could have been used to steal his identity and cause financial ruin he said it was crazy and scary that the…
Data Breach Investigation | Due Process of Law
In September, I posted an excerpt from a thought-provoking commentary by attorney Benjamin Wright. In discussing a fine levied against Lucile Salter Packard Hospital for late notification under California’s breach notification law, he had written, in part: The California Legislature made clear it wants notices to be issued quickly. However, the law should not be…
Pointer: Healthcare Breach Highlights Need For More Security Insight
Over on InformationWeek, George V. Hlme comments on the Triple-S Managment breach reported previously on this site.u