Reuters reports on the WellPoint breach that’s in the news this week: […] The company believes that the security glitch was exploited to access information on 940 insurance applications. Separately, unauthorized viewers accessed spreadsheets that “in rare cases” contained Social Security numbers, Sanders said. WellPoint is doing forensic work to identify the applicants whose data…
Category: Health Data
CA: Dominican Hospital worker loses job over privacy breach
Jondi Gumz reports: Dominican Hospital has dismissed an employee who accessed medical records for 200 patients without authorization. The unauthorized access was discovered May 25, according to Mike Lee, Dominican Hospital spokesman, noting the information included patients’ full name, account number, insurance carrier and diagnosis or reason for hospitalization. “Based on our investigation and an…
Another theft of data from Kentuckiana hospital causing concern
Eric Flack reports: There has been another data breach at a Louisville hospital owned by Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s Healthcare. Jewish Hospital is still reeling from the disappearance of a flash drive from Our Lady of Peace. While this data breach is much smaller, there is still cause for concern. On April 21, patients…
Aetna recovers personal information of N.J. policy holders thought to have been discarded
Note: this is a follow-up to a breach previously described here Susan K. Livio reports: HARTFORD, Ct. — Aetna is alerting nearly 5,000 policy holders in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that it recovered a filing cabinet containing social security numbers and other personal information that it had thrown away when it moved out of an…
Commentary: CVS & HHS: Partners in Compromising Your Privacy
James Christiano is not happy with CVS’s privacy protections, or lack thereof. Despite the resolution agreement between Health and Human Services (HHS) and CVS over past privacy violations, James reports that protections are still, well, seriously inadequate: This week I had a prescription filled at my local CVS pharmacy in Livingston, New Jersey. While standing…
New York hospital loses data on 130,000 via FedEx
Robert McMillan reports: New York’s Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center is notifying patients that their personal information may have been compromised after seven CDs full of unencrypted data were FedExed by a hospital contractor and then lost in transit. The CDs were sent by the hospital’s billing processor, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, around March…