So how are you determining if your Business Associate or vendor has a rogue employee who may be stealing or misusing your patients’ protected health information? A notification from Anthem regarding an incident that affected more than 18,000 Medicare members in 21 states is a timely reminder that out of sight cannot mean out of mind…
Category: Insider
Virginia Woman Admits Stealing WVU Medicine University Healthcare Patient Information
The Associated Press has an update on an insider breach previously noted earlier this year: Forty-one-year-old Angela Roberts of Stephenson, Virginia, entered the plea Monday in federal court in Martinsburg. Roberts admitted using someone else’s personal information to commit bank fraud in June 2016 in Berkeley County, West Virginia. She faces up to five years…
Japan to take ‘strict action’ against Bayer over patient-data scandal
Ed Silverman reports: The Japanese government intends to take “strict action” against Bayer after the drug maker acknowledged three employees “inappropriately” accessed patient data as part of a plan to promote its Xarelto blood thinner, according to Pharma Japan. In response, Bayer executives will voluntarily return 10 percent of their salaries for three months for…
Tewksbury Hospital clerk snooped in patient records – for 14 years!
Felice J. Freyer reports: A clerk at the state-run Tewksbury Hospital inappropriately viewed the electronic medical records of 1,100 patients from 2003 to 2017, the Department of Public Health revealed Friday. The clerk, who no longer works at the hospital, had access to records as part of her job, but snooped into patient files she…
OK: Stolen medical records uncovered in identity theft scheme
Andrew Freeman reports: Authorities confirmed Thursday that medical records were stolen in addition to mail, in two identity theft arrests made last month. We’ve been violated as a hospital, the community’s been violated, and we suffered the theft of some records that was inappropriate, and will not happen again.” Mercy Health Love County administrator Richard…
Lucchese computer hacker sentenced to 18-months in federal prison
Andra Litton has the follow-up to a case previously noted on this site: A disgruntled ex-employee of Lucchese Boots was sentenced to 18-months in federal prison and ordered to pay $57,396.76 in restitution Wednesday after pleading guilty to one count of transmission of a program to cause damage to a computer. The computer breach happened…