Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Business associate breach struck healthcare industry

More hospitals are claiming that they have suffered a breach of protected health information after a worker working for a contractor was discovered to have downloaded a range of sufferer demographic data without authorization.


Information the employee downloaded to a flash drive involved the patient names, birth dates, addresses, phone numbers, diagnoses, medications, as well as sufferer identification numbers and physician names, among other data.


Healthcare agencies are seeking out about the breach from Ambucor Health Solutions, a business associate that provides contracted cardiac and labor monitoring services. The number of impacted providers and patients isn’t still publicly known.


Although, agencies that have notified patients of the breach involve Carolina Cardiology Consultants in Greenville, S.C.; New Mexico Heart Institute in Albuquerque; Conemaugh Physician Group Cardiology in Johnstown, Penn.; Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass.; and Cleveland Clinic Akron General, among others.


A representative of Ambucor wasn’t instantly available for comment.


While noting that no information seems to have been misused, Ambucor is providing affected sufferers 1 year of identity theft protection. The vendor is a subsidiary of ScottCare Corp.

No comments:

Post a Comment