Craig McCarthy reports an update to a case that first made the news in 2015, although it was not covered on this site at the time – likely because I didn’t know it involved patient information: A Sayreville couple was sentenced Friday for stealing thousands of dollars through an identity-theft ring that targeted mental health patients. They used…
Category: Health Data
WV: 7,445 patients notified of University Healthcare information breach
The Journal reports: More than 7,000 patients of WVU Medicine University Healthcare were notified of a breach of unsecured personal patient protected health information after discovering that an employee had accessed patient information without authorization. University Healthcare officials became aware Jan. 17, of an FBI and local law enforcement investigation into the unauthorized access, use…
Owner Of Durable Medical Equipment Company And Three Physicians Charged With Health Care Fraud And Aggravated Identity Theft
SAN JUAN, P.R. – On February 13, 2017, a Federal Grand Jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned a superseding indictment charging Dr. Dante A. Rodríguez-Rivera, Javier Efraín Siverio-Echevarría, Dr. George D. Alcántara-Cardi, Dr. Martha Nieves, Javier Antonio Aguirre- Estrada, and Carlos Maldonado-López with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health…
Vets lose privacy lawsuit against VA after unencrypted data is stolen from hospital
Patrick O’Neill reports: After multiple thefts and data breaches related to the unencrypted personal information of 7,400 U.S. veterans out of a Veterans Affairs hospital, an appeals court dismissed a lawsuit this month in which patients alleged violations of the Privacy Act and Administrative Procedure Act. The veterans claimed at least seventeen more data breaches have occurred at Wm….
Patient info goes for how much on the dark web?
So the next time you read a report about how much money patient info goes for on the dark web or read estimates about $200/record, perhaps you should shop around, because medical records and health insurance info can be dirt cheap. This vendor will apparently sell you two patients’ records with their Social Security number, date…
The CoPilot Provider Support Services incident: The HIPAA issue
In the first part of a discussion of an incident reported by CoPilot Provider Support Services, this site reported claims by John Witkowski, a former employee, that CoPilot had not reported accurately on the incident. In this part, we focus on just one of CoPilot’s claims – that they are not a business associate under HIPAA….