Amanda Bronstad reports that UCLA Health System was sued over a September breach revealed last month. The potential class action lawsuit, filed December 14, alleges violations of California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, which provides for statutory damages of $1,000/per person. At over 16,000 patients, that could cost them $16.3 million plus legal fees and…
Category: Health Data
University of Mississippi Medical Center and Mississippi State Department of Health notify 1500 research participants that stolen laptop contained their health information
The University of Mississippi Medical Center and the Mississippi State Department of Health are informing nearly 1,500 participants in research studies of a breach of their personal health information. A UMMC faculty member had been assigned a laptop for use in the studies. On Oct. 31, a UMMC employee reported that the laptop used for…
WA: Renton Doctor Office Burglarized; CDs with patients' SSN and medical information stolen
ID Experts released this substitute notice in media on behalf of their client: The office of Paul C. Brown, M.D., P.S., was burglarized the weekend of October 14, 2011. The thieves broke into the office and stole various pieces of office equipment including CDs containing patient information data from 1993 – 2004. Upon discovery of…
TX: Ex-city workers sentenced for ID thefts
There’s a follow-up to a breach reported previously on this blog. Guillermo Contreras reports: A San Antonio couple who worked for the city was sentenced Thursday for using stolen Social Security information to buy a boat, jewelry and several vehicles, including two motorcycles, two Cadillacs and a $43,000 Corvette. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia gave Mary Mercy Lopez, 49,…
Allina Sends Private Patient Info to 250,000 People
Mark Albert reports: In a breach of patient privacy, Allina Hospitals & Clinics included information on eight people – the fact that they are a patient, their email address, and the name of the company they worked for – in a mass email that went to a quarter of a million patients in Minnesota and…
UK: Receptionist unlawfully accessed sister-in-law’s medical details
A receptionist who unlawfully obtained her sister-in-law’s medical records in order to find out about the medication she was taking has been found guilty of an offence under section 55 of the Data Protection Act. Usha Patwal, of Romford, was given a two year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £614 prosecution costs by Havering…