Medical identity theft affected about 1.84 million adults or their family members this year at a projected out-of-pocket cost to the victims of over $12 billion, according to a new report released today. The Medical Identity Fraud Alliance, with support from ID Experts, recently sponsored a survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute. The researchers surveyed 788 adults…
Category: Health Data
AU: Pharmacy sorry after records found at recycling centre
Sam Bidey reports: A Jamison pharmacy has apologised for accidentally dumping hundreds of private medical records, including cancelled and out-of-date prescriptions, at a recycling depot earlier this week. A Territory and Municipal Services officer was sent to the Belconnen Resource Management Centre on Monday night following a report that prescription medication had been found at…
Meanwhile, back in court: Tiversa sues LabMD for defamation, seeks to block publication of book by LabMD CEO (updated)
Back in July, I reported that LabMD had unsuccessfully attempted to sue Tiversa in Georgia for allegedly stealing its property. At issue was a file containing PHI on 1,718 patients that Tiversa had downloaded as part of a research project after the file was exposed via P2P software on LabMD’s system. In its 2009 press release…
ICS Collection Service, Inc. press release on data breach affecting University of Chicago Physicians Group patients
ICS Collection Service, Inc. (“ICS”) is a debt collection agency specializing in recovering aged debt from individuals (“debtors”) on behalf of healthcare and commercial entities (“clients” or “creditors”), including University of Chicago Physicians Group (“UCPG”). ICS had previously contracted with UCPG for collection and address verification services. While the contract had been terminated before the potential breach…
Burglar snatches laptop with patient medical records from San Jose internist's office
Hankyu Chung, M.D., an internist in San Jose, California, reports that on June 16, there was a burglary at his offices. The burglar was able to gain access to the offices by entering the building complex through an unlocked door and using the crawl space above the office to gain access to it. The burglary…
Advocate breach lawsuit says the group didn't adequately secure data
Mitch Smith reports: Advocate Medical Group, already under federal and state investigation after the theft of computers containing personal information on millions of people, is now facing a class-action lawsuit from patients who say the Downers Grove-based physician group didn’t do enough to protect their private data. The suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court,…