There’s an update to a case I’ve been covering since March, 2013, when Rafael Henriquez Polanco and his wife, Yanira Lopez, were first charged in a tax refund fraud scheme. According to court records, as part of the scheme, they paid employees at Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Chester Community Hospital to provide them with identity information of 144 patients. The hospitals…
Category: Health Data
OK: EyeCare of Bartlesville notifies patients after hard drive locked by malware
EyeCare of Bartlesville in Oklahoma reported a breach to HHS on March 13 that appeared on HHS’s public breach tool on March 19. There was no notice on their web site that I could find at that time. Nor could I locate any public notices via a Google search. The incident was coded on HHS’s breach tool as a…
NJ: Court dismisses breach lawsuit against Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield
In December, 2013, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey notified almost 840,000 members that their protected health information was on laptops stolen from the insurer’s Newark headquarters on November 1, 2013. At the time, Horizon BCBS reported that the laptops were password-protected, but the data were unencrypted, and After a detailed review with…
OH: Former ProMedica hospital employee indicted on criminal HIPAA and CFAA charges
It appears we have another criminal prosecution under HIPAA. In May 2014, ProMedica disclosed that almost 600 Bay Park Hospital patients were to be notified of an insider breach. In June, police announced that no criminal charges would be filed because their investigation found that no patient information such as social security numbers or financial…
CA: Email error exposes 845 Tulare County patients’ email addresses.
The Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency (HHSA) has announced a potential breach involving the protected health information of 845 patients seen at the Visalia and Farmersville clinics who use the online Patient Portal. The potential breach occurred on March 19, 2015, when an employee sent an email and neglected to encrypt and blind…
Former lab technician at Children’s Heart Center Nevada arrested in suspected ID theft case (UPDATED)
Ricardo Torres reports: A lab technician at the Children’s Heart Center Nevada who had access to patient files containing personal information was arrested two months ago on suspicion of identity theft, the center’s attorney said Friday. Read more on the Las Vegas Review-Journal. CHCN issued a statement on their website today that says, in part:…