Boise, Idaho (April 12, 2019) – Blue Cross of Idaho Health Service, Inc. (“Blue Cross of Idaho”) is providing notice to certain members of a recent incident involving protected health information (“PHI”) which qualifies as privacy breach. On March 21, 2019, an unauthorized user accessed Blue Cross of Idaho’s online provider portal with the intent…
Category: U.S.
UT fired counselor accused of disclosing student’s PTSD
Sarah Elms reports: A University of Toledo counselor accused of improperly disclosing a student’s personal health information has been fired. University officials on Dec. 18, 2018, notified Mychail Scheramic that his employment would be terminated at close of business March 18. He was hired in 2017 as the university’s counseling center director and was paid…
MD Anderson Cancer Center Appeals $4.3 Million HIPAA Fine
Marianne Kolbasuk McGee reports: The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has filed a lawsuit arguing that a $4.3 million HIPAA penalty levied against it last year by the Department of Health and Human Services following three data breaches involving unencrypted devices was unlawful. In the complaint filed Tuesday in a Texas federal court,…
Patients at an Ohio rehab hospital were notified of breach. Was that breach part of a coordinated attack on Ernest Health hospitals?
Lauren Lindstrom reports: An undisclosed number of patients at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Northwest Ohio had their personal data compromised after “unauthorized access” to employee email accounts in October, hospital officials said. Patient data, including names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license information, dates of birth, and health insurance and patient care information, was contained in…
PA: Community College of Allegheny County discloses breach of former students’ info
Oof. Community College of Allegheny County responded to a public records request concerning former students. They redacted student PII,in the spreadsheets, but due to “technical failures in the redaction process,” the data could be unmasked. Read the notification to the Vermont Attorney General’s Office.
Two newly revealed phishing attacks in 2018 potentially compromised 41,000 patients’ ePHI
Every time I think I’m ready to total out the March data on health data attacks or incidents, another incident pops up belatedly on HHS’s site. This time, there were two reports that I had to add yesterday. One was a report from Palmetto Health in South Carolina (now part of Prisma). Palmetto reported that…