Idaho State University (ISU) has agreed to pay $400,000 to the U.S. Department of Health Human Services (HHS) to settle alleged violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Security Rule. The settlement involves the breach of unsecured electronic protected health information (ePHI) of approximately 17,500 patients at ISU’s Pocatello Family…
Category: Health Data
More additions to HHS's breach tool
Two updates within a week? The HHS breach tool is getting a workout. Here is what was added today: Sovereign Medical Group, LLC in New Jersey reported that 27,800 were affected by a breach on October 10, 2012. HHS’s breach tool codes the incident as “Theft, Hacking/IT Incident”, Network Server,” which probably means a hack,…
Update: Details on the Delta Dental breach
The other day, in blogging about recent updates to HHS’s breach tool, I noted an entry from Delta Dental of Pennsylvania involving ZDI: Delta Dental of Pennsylvania reported that their business associate, ZDI, suffered a breach involving the loss of paper records for 14,829 patients. The breach occurred on March 20. I was unable to find…
NY: Personal Files From Erie County Social Services Found Discarded
WGRZ reports: The Erie County Comptroller’s office says an audit has found copies of residents confidential personal information left in open areas that are accessible to the public. Some the information in the records includes birth certificates, social security cards, and medical records. The comptroller says the records were found during an ongoing audit of…
Updates to HHS's breach tool (updated)
HHS added 13 more incidents to its breach tool today. Six of them have been reportedly previously on this blog: Hope Hospice IHC Health Services, Inc. dba Intermountain Life Flight. Of note, they reported that that the breach began on October 12, 2009. That’s a long time to go undetected. El Centro Regional Medical Center reported that 189,489 patients…
Medical worker stole patient identities
Debbie Knox of WISH TV in Indiana reports: Greenwood police was the agency that alerted Community Health that they had an employee who was stealing patients’ identities. “A former patient had stated that they had reason to believe that someone had taken their identity,” said Jean Putnam, Vice President at Community Health Network.” Between mid-March…