There’s an update to a breach that I hadn’t read about back in June when it was first reported. The breach allegedly involves one doctor who improperly accessed two patients’ records held at Group Health Centre and Sault Area Hospital. But the allegations have some bizarre features, as SooToday reports: The hospital reported in June that an internal investigation into…
Category: Health Data
IE: Confidential patient files on street near hospital in Drogheda
BreakingNews.ie reports: Two investigations are underway after confidential patient files were found on a street in Drogheda. The files were discovered by a local man out walking near Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, which says it takes the matter “extremely seriously”. It says all 44 patients affected will be met individually and a letter of…
Barrington Orthopedic Specialists, Ltd notifies patients after theft of equipment
Barrington Orthopedic Specials, Ltd in Illinois is notifying 1,009 patients following the theft of a laptop with protected health information. From their substitute notice on their web site: Barrington Orthopedic Specialists, Ltd. takes patient privacy very seriously, and it is important to us that you are made fully aware of a potential privacy issue. We have…
DEA obtains a federal search warrant for patient data on MicroMD
Justin Shafer pointed me to a case where the government, investigating a healthcare provider, served SaaS MicroMD with a federal search warrant for some patients’ data. You can read Justin’s write-up on his blog, but the case reminds us that patient data can be disclosed to law enforcement without patients’ awareness or consent, and that unencrypted patient…
Ringleader of $24 Million Stolen Identity Tax Refund Fraud Ring Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison
There’s another follow-up to a case previously reported on PHIprivacy.net and more recently, on this site (here and here). A resident of Newnan, Georgia, was sentenced Friday to prison for her role as the ringleader of a $24 million stolen identity tax refund fraud (SIRF) conspiracy. The sentence was announced by Acting Assistant Attorney General Caroline D. Ciraolo of…
NJ: Horizon BCBS notifies members that perps posing as doctors stole their insurance information
Sometimes criminals steal identity information or insurance information to defraud insurers. But while we’ve seen doctors using patients’ insurance information to defraud insurers, it’s a bit unusual to hear that criminals actually posed as doctors to gain access to insurance information that they then used in insurance fraud. That seems to be what happened in this…