It was around 3:30 this afternoon when I noticed people starting to complain about weirdness on Steam’s site. Attempts to connect to the site often resulted in a landing page in a different language (I didn’t even recognize the language I was seeing when I connected to the site), and if you logged into your…
Category: Exposure
OCR should fine entities that close and just dump patient records
Seriously. How many times will see news reports of how medical practices closed their doors and just dumped patient records? Here’s another case this week, reported by WSFA in Alabama, who made great efforts to track down someone – anyone – who might be able to help identify the culprit (and yes, I use the…
Physicians Health Plan of Northern Indiana notifies Indigo members whose billing statements were erroneously sent to others
Another problem with mailing bills that results in a HIPAA breach. Physicians Health Plan of Northern Indiana, Inc. (PHPNI) posted an FAQ on December 18 about an incident affecting Indigo members. Their report to HHS indicates that 1,708 patients were affected. What happened? An error occurred in the assembly of a premium billing statement mailing on December 8,…
Allina Health Isles Clinic notifies more than 6,000 patients of improper disposal of their records
First, the notice from Allina Health in Minnesota: This notice concerns a privacy situation that occurred at the Allina Health Isles Clinic, located at 2800 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55408. On October 27, 2015, Allina Health discovered that in limited circumstances, containers which may have had documents with patient information were being emptied into a…
NY dermatologist notifies patients after email error exposes PHI
Add Mary Ruth Buchness, M.D. to the list of medical practices that have reported a breach in 2015. On December 12, she submitted a copy of her notification letter to patients to the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. A copy of the notice is also prominently linked from her web site. Dr. Buchness writes, in part:…
Florida Agency For Healthcare Administration records with PHI sent to landfill by mistake
From Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration, Dec. 21: HIPAA Notice of Improper Disposal of Protected Health Information. The Agency for Health Care Administration has determined that certain inspection records which may contain protected health information were improperly disposed of on November 12, 2015. On November 13, 2015, the Agency discovered that old inspection records of…