Premier Patient Health Care located in Carrollton, TX has learned that an unauthorized individual had acquired the protected health information (PHI) of 37,636 patients during an insider data breach.
Premier Patient Health Care is an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) that collaborates with medical professionals to make improvements to clinical results covered by the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). The ACO and Premier Patient Health Care are run by Premier Management Company, a business associate to numerous primary care doctors who are covered entities by HIPAA.
On April 30, 2020, Wiseman Innovations, a technology merchant utilized by Premier Management Company, confirmed that a previous Premier Patient Health Care manager obtained access to its computer network in July 2020 right after the end of the employment contract, and viewed and acquired a file comprising patient data.
An evaluation of the file established it comprised the protected health information of patients of primary care medical professionals, such as complete names, sex, age, birth date, ethnicity, county, state of residence, and ZIP code as well as Medicare beneficiary details including Medicare eligibility time period, spend data, and hierarchical condition category risk rating.
The breach investigation is continuing, however, it’s not possible up to now to ascertain what the previous executive did with the record, even though no evidence was determined to show any attempt or actual patient data misuse.
As a preventative measure, all impacted patients were cautioned to be wary and keep an eye on their accounts for indications of bogus activity. Premier mentioned guidelines and procedures are being assessed and will be kept up to date to help avert similar occurrences down the road.
Email Account Breach At Oregon Eye Specialists
The optometry group Oregon Eye Specialists based in Portland, OR suffered an email account breach causing the compromise of the PHI of a number of patients.
The provider observed suspicious activity in an email account on August 10, 2021. This required a password reset and inquiry. The investigation affirmed that an unauthorized person had obtained access to a number of employee email accounts between June 29, 2021 and August 30, 2021. An assessment of those email accounts showed they included PHI for instance names, birth dates, dates of service, medical record numbers, financial details, and medical insurance data, which include policy number and provider name.
No proof was discovered of any attempted or actual patient information misuse at this time nevertheless affected people were instructed to watch out for suspicious activity in their account and explanation of benefits statements. Oregon Eye Specialists provided credit monitoring and identity protection services to the affected persons.
The number of individuals impacted by the breach is still uncertain. An update will be given when available.