Kate Reilly reports: Three hospitals in Alabama remained closed Wednesday “to all but the most critical new patients” due to a ransomware attack that disrupted medical care. “A criminal is limiting our ability to use our computer systems in exchange for an as-yet unknown payment,” the DCH Health System said in a statement on Tuesday. “Our hospitals have implemented…
Category: Health Data
Dental Practice Pays $10,000 to Settle Social Media Disclosures of Patients’ Protected Health Information
HHS OCR has announced another settlement of a HIPAA complaint: Elite Dental Associates, Dallas (“Elite”) has agreed to pay $10,000 to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and to adopt a corrective action plan to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act…
Ca: Pharmacy patient health files discovered at Rankin landfill
Darrell Greer reports: The North West Company has recently issued a public information release notifying Kivalliq residents that materials containing health information were recovered from the Rankin Inlet landfill site this past Feb. 28. The release went on to state that the information belonged to patients of the previously operating Sakku Drugs in Rankin (since…
IN: Goshen Health notifies patients potentially impacted by 2018 data security breach
Sometimes, an incident that doesn’t appear to require notification may require notification under HIPAA. In an August, 2018 incident reported on The Elkhart Truth that involved Goshen Health, the health system originally determined that no notification was required, but when forensic investigators came in months later and looked for any information that might have been…
Sarrell Dental notifies almost 400,000 patients after ransomware attack
Sarrell Dental in Alabama notified HHS on Sept 12 of an incident impactng 391,472 patients, but their report did not get posted right away, which may explain why this incident has pretty much flown under the media radar. According to Wikipedia, Sarrell Dental and Eye Centers, is a non-profit orgranization and the largest dental provider in…
Sioux Falls VA notifies patients after HIPAA breach
KSFY reports: Officials with the Sioux Falls Veteran Affairs Health Care System are warning patients about a potential breach of privacy. The incident stems from letters sent to a Sioux Falls VA mail room printer on August 21, according to Public Affairs Officer Erin Bultje. VA staff were not aware the mail room printer was…