Since December 2009, when two laptops were stolen from AvMed’s office in Gainesville, Florida, the case has been pursued by some of the 1.2 million insured whose personal and health information were on the laptops. In November 2010, five of them filed a potential class action lawsuit, Although AvMed claimed in November 2010 that there was…
Category: Health Data
Health ministry suspends workers over privacy breach
Jonathan Fowlie reports: Seven employees have been suspended without pay from the B.C. Ministry of Health over allegations of inappropriate access to medical information, The Vancouver Sun has learned. The employees in question worked in the area of research and evidence development, which awards drug research contracts on behalf of the ministry. Government has also…
Beware of the threat within
Darren Pauli has a report on insider breaches in Australia. One of them involves a situation we’ve seen here, too: insiders stealing patient databases to set up their own practice: Another ongoing case has seen a Sydney medical clinic chain defrauded of up to $2 million after a small group of experienced practitioners allegedly stole…
Patient data stolen from Temple Community Hospital
Anna Gorman reports; Temple Community Hospital in Los Angeles is warning about 600 patients that their personal and medical information was taken earlier this summer. The theft occurred in early July, when someone stole a computer from a locked office in the radiology department, hospital staff announced Friday. The computer contained CT scans of patients,…
Harris County Hospital District notifies patients whose data were stolen by an employee
Patients of Harris County Hospital District in Texas who were patients between April 14, 2008 and February 11, 2011 are first being notified that their information may have been stolen by an employee. In a notice posted on their site, David S. Lopez, President/CEO, writes that they wish to “urgently call your attention to the…
Second class action lawsuit against Western Health Authority filed
Gary Kean reports that a second class action lawsuit, representing about 200 patients who received breach notifications from Western Health, has been filed. Unlike the other lawsuit, however, this one names the employee as a co-defendant. Over 1,000 patients received notification letters concerning an employee’s inappropriate access to their files. For at least some patients,…