Large Patient Information Breaches List Nears Century Mark

However, those entities will be unmasked because listing them falls under the "routine use" provision of the privacy act, which allows OCR to post their names without getting consent.

The breach affecting the most individuals is now AvMed, Inc. of Florida, whose Dec. 10, 2009, breach involving a laptop affected 1.22 million individuals.

Filling out the top five breaches with the largest number of affected individuals are:

AvMed, Inc.
State: Florida
Approximate number of individuals affected: 1,220,000
Date of breach: Dec. 10, 2009
Type of breach: Theft
Location of beached information: Laptop

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee
State: Tennessee
Approximate number of individuals affected: 998,442
Date of breach: Oct. 2, 2009
Type of breach: Theft
Location of breached information: Hard drives

Affinity Health Plan, Inc.
State: New York
Approximate number of individuals affected: 344,579
Date of breach: Nov. 24, 2009
Type of breach: Other
Location of breached information: Other

Emergency Healthcare Physicians, Ltd.
State: Illinois
Business associate involved: Millennium Medical Management Resources, Inc.
Approximate number of individuals affected: 180,111
Date of breach: Feb. 27, 2010
Type of breach: Theft
Location of breached information: Portable electronic device, other

Providence Hospital
State: Michigan
Approximate number of individuals affected: 83,945
Date of breach: Feb. 4, 2010
Type of breach: Other
Location of breached information: Hard drive