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,…
Category: Health Data
Proposed settlement in lawsuit over AvMed breach
Main Justice reports that there may be a settlement in the lawsuit over the AvMed breach that affected 1.2 million. As noted in previous coverage on this site, the lawsuit stemmed from the theft of two laptops from the firm’s Gainesville office in Florida in December 2009. Details of the settlement are not yet available,…
FL: Haley volunteer accused of stealing patients’ identities
A volunteer at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital has been accused of stealing patients’ identities and using that information to file fake income tax refunds of about $550,000, according to federal court documents. Ricardo Jacinto Rodriguez, the VA volunteer, and Andropolis Jioberiti Mitchell were indicted last week on charges of embezzlement and fraud. The…
Surgery photo leads to privacy lawsuit against Torrance Memorial
Chad Terhune reports: During surgery at Torrance Memorial Medical Center, an anesthesiologist decorated a patient’s face with stickers while the patient was unconscious — giving her a black mustache and teardrops under her left eye — and then a nurse’s aide snapped her photo. The 2011 incident has prompted a state investigation and a civil…
Medical University of South Carolina notifies patients of breach at credit card processing vendor
The Summerville Journal Scene reports: MUSC says it has had its financial records hacked and credit card information for some 7,000 people has been compromised, according to area reports. At some point between June 30 and August 21, the records of Blackhawk Consulting Group were compromised and hackers got the credit card information for patients…
GA: Nurse sentenced in ID theft for tax refund fraud case
There’s a follow-up to a breach reported previously on this blog. Melody Milton, 38, of Albany, Georgia, was sentenced on August 12, 2013, following her guilty pleas on August 23, 2012. Milton was a home health care nurse employed by Phoebe Putney Home Health Care.