UNC School of Dentistry is alerting some of its patients that their personal information may have gotten into the wrong hands. According to the school, this inadvertent disclosure happened after one of the school’s postgraduate dental residents car was broken into. The school sent a letter informing patients that their personal information was stored on…
Category: Health Data
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield Pays $1.1M For Customer Data Breach
Jerry DeMarco reports: Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey agreed to pay $1.1 million and improve data-security practices to settle charges that it failed to properly protect the privacy of nearly 690,000 state policyholders whose personal information was contained on two laptops stolen from the insurer’s Newark headquarters. The insurance giant — New…
$5.5 million HIPAA settlement shines light on the importance of audit controls
Memorial Healthcare Systems (MHS) has paid the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) $5.5 million to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules and agreed to implement a robust corrective action plan. MHS is a nonprofit corporation which operates six hospitals, an…
PharmaNet breach compromises personal information of 7,500 B.C. residents, says province
CBC News reports: The personal information of approximately 7,500 British Columbians may have been compromised through the provincial government’s PharmaNet system, according to the Ministry of Health. A letter from the ministry was sent last week to B.C residents affected by the breach. The letter says an “unknown/unauthorized person obtained and used a physician’s login to access PharmaNet.” PharmaNet…
Misdirected medical documents reveal patient privacy issue
If you’re going to misdirect a fax containing patient information, you probably would like to avoid misdirecting it to a news station. WFAA reports: Fax machines are an easy, reliable way to get documents from one place to another quickly. It’s one reason doctors’ offices use them so frequently when sharing patient information. “There has…
Fulton County clinic dumps sensitive medical records in plain sight
Dante Renzulli reports: A Fulton County clinic is caught dumping medical records in a place where identity thieves could easily get to them. On Thursday, CBS46 discovered the dumpster sitting right in front of the South Fulton Mental Heath Center contained hundreds of medical records. We didn’t even have to come in the middle of the night. CBS46 reporter, Dante Renzulli,…