HIPAA Data Breaches

Phishing, malware & direct attacks by hackers are on the increase and employees are abusing data access rights: Any organization required to collect, store or use Protected Health Information (PHI) is likely to suffer a data breach. It is just a matter of when that breach will occur. Even when healthcare providers abide by HIPAA…

A payment processing Business Associate (BA) of North Shore-LIJ Health System – Global Care Delivery (GCD) – has reported the theft of five laptop computers; four of which are believed to have contained the Protected Health Information (PHI) of approximately 18,000 patients. The theft took place at GCD’s offices in Texas on or before September…

The New York City Health & Hospitals Corporation’s (HHC) Jacobi Medical Center has reported 90,060 patient records have been compromised when an employee copied the data from the company’s system and emailed it to her personal email account; as well as copying her new employer on the email. The employee sent the information before leaving…

Advantage Dental of Redmond, OR, has announced that hackers have successfully infiltrated its computer systems and have potentially accessed the records of over 151,000 of its patients, according to a report in the Portland Tribune. The Oregon-based company, which primarily provides dental services for low-income patients and operates more than 30 clinics throughout the state,…

Hackers have gained access to the E-mail accounts of a number of employees of the St. Mary’s Medical Center in Evansville, Indiana, resulting in the PHI of approximately 4,400 patients potentially being exposed. A spokesman for St. Mary’s Medical Center, Randy Capehart, issued a statement announcing the HIPAA breach to the press. In the statement…

Brookings Report: HIPAA Hacks Up 1,800 Percent Feb 19, 2015 | hipaajournal | No comment | Healthcare Data Security A new report by the Brookings Institution predicts a wave of HIPAA data breaches in 2015, claims that the healthcare industry is particularly vulnerable to attack and that there is a lack of consequences for healthcare…

A HIPAA breach carries a huge financial penalty and one the scale of that which recently affected Anthem Inc., is expected to result in costs of many tens of millions of dollars. Anthem holds an insurance policy from the American International Group to protect against cyber crime and data exposures, and is covered for losses…

ABC News reports that an unencrypted laptop that went missing from Riverside County Regional Medical Center in December may have contained personal information of nearly 7,900 patients. At first, this new report appeared to be an update of a breach disclosure the center made in June, when they reported notifying 563 patients of a missing laptop that had…

HIPAA Settlement Reached for Dumpster PHI Exposure – HIPAA Journal Under Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) data privacy and security rules, Protected Health Information (PHI) must be secured at all times and when data is no longer required it must be destroyed to prevent accidental exposure. In May 2013, Midwest Women’s Healthcare Specialists…