PHI of Campbell County Health and UT Southwestern Medical Center Patients Impermissibly Disclosed

A Campbell County Health (CCH) personnel had done an email error that led to the impermissible disclosure of the protected health information (PHI) of 900 people. The health system based in Gillette, WY found out on February 5, 2021 that personnel dispatched an email message to a patient and included the wrong file.

The file included information like patient names, type of insurance, and account numbers. CCH found the mailing error in just one hour after delivering the email and got in touch with the person who received it promptly and told him/her to completely discard the attached file. CCH officials gave directions on how to make sure that the file was completely discarded from the email account and systems, and CCH has gotten adequate guarantees that the file was definitely forever gone and no more disclosures happened.

CCH sent notifications to the affected persons about the incident and adjusted internal policies to stop identical mishaps down the road. CCH has likewise made available additional HIPAA staff training to staff members regarding guidelines for securing patient information.

UT Southwestern Medical Center Notifies Patients Concerning Impermissible Disclosure of Data

UT Southwestern Medical Center based in Dallas, TX is informing 3,640 patients concerning an improper disclosure of their names and email to a third-party vendor. The data were shared with the third-party provider to be able to send announcements relating to a Kidney Cancer Program. No other facts were exposed. All impacted persons had gotten medical services by means of the UTSW Kidney Cancer Program in the past.

There was no more exposure of data, however, the sharing of the patient details was not acceptable under HIPAA, therefore patient notice is required. UTSW Medical Center mentioned that UT Southwestern highly regards the security of its patients’ privacy, and seriously regrets the happening of this data breach and the anxiety, stress, or trouble that it had created.

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Christine Garcia is the staff writer on Calculated HIPAA. Christine has several years experience in writing about healthcare sector issues with a focus on the compliance and cybersecurity issues. Christine has developed in-depth knowledge of HIPAA regulations. You can contact Christine at [email protected]. You can follow Christine on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ChrisCalHIPAA