In a HealthcareITNews article on a recent breach, Erin McCann included this eye-catching statement: Out of the more than 80,000 HIPAA breach cases OCR has received since 2003, only 17 of them have resulted in fines thus far. To paraphrase Einstein, HHS might do well to remember that if they keep doing what they’ve always done,…
Category: Health Data
Accretive Health Settles FTC Charges That It Failed to Adequately Protect Consumers’ Personal Information
From the FTC, a follow-up on a breach that was first disclosed in September 2011, and that I’ve covered a number of times on PHIprivacy.net (see these articles). Regular readers may recall that Accretive was also sued by Minnesota’s Attorney General. That suit settled for $2.5 million in July 2012. Accretive Health, Inc., a company that…
Riverside Health System notifies 919 patients after employee improperly accessed their information
I hope this is the last breach of PHI I’ll have to report in 2013, but since there’s still 5 hours to go, who knows? WAVY in Newport News, Virginia reports: A local hospital is offering free credit monitoring after officials say an employee inappropriately accessed patients’ medical records. According to Peter Glagola, Director of…
FL: Barry University notifies patients that records with personal, financial, and medical information may have been compromised
Miami Herald staff report: Barry University announced Monday night it is notifying patients of its Foot and Ankle Institute that their medical records and personal information may have been hacked. The security breach was detected around May 14th via a school laptop infected by a form of malware – software used mainly to gain access…
NJ: Barnabas Health notified patients after laptop with pediatric patients' pulmonary testing data was stolen from center
One of the breaches recently added to HHS’s public-facing breach tool was an incident involving Barnabas Health in New Jersey. In response to my e-mail and phone inquiries, today they sent me a link to a statement that was subsequently posted on their web site: IMPORTANT NOTICE TO PEDIATRIC SPECIALTY CENTER PATIENTS Posted Date: 12/18/2013…
Inspira: No patient information on stolen computer
Don E. Woods reports the good news for Inspira Medical Center Vineland patients: There was no patient information on a computer stolen from Inspira Medical Center Vineland, according to a hospital spokesman. Read more on NJ.com. It’s unfortunate that patients worried for days about whether their data had been stolen and that the medical center…