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OCR: Data Breaches Double Since July

Dom Nicastro, for HealthLeaders Media, December 2, 2010

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

  1. 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
  2. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee
    State: Tennessee
    Approximate number of individuals affected: 1,023,209
    Date of breach: Oct. 2, 2009
    Type of breach: Theft
    Location of breached information: Hard drives
  3. South Shore Hospital (MA)
    State: Massachusetts
    Approximate number of individuals affected: 800,000
    Date of breach: Feb. 26, 2010
    Type of Breach: Loss
    Location of Breached Information: Portable Electronic Device, Electronic Medical Record, Other
  4. Puerto Rico Department of Health
    State: Puerto Rico
    Approximate number of individuals affected: 400,000
    Date of breach: Sept. 21, 2010
    Type of Breach: Unauthorized access/disclosure, hacking/IT incident
    Location of Breached Information: Network Server
  5. 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

 

Dom Nicastro is a contributing writer. He edits the Medical Records Briefings newsletter and manages the HIPAA Update Blog.

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1 comments on "OCR: Data Breaches Double Since July"


Shea Steinberg (12/6/2010 at 1:14 PM)
To me, this is not surprising considering the fact that technology now-a-days is so accessible, that one can literally walk away with people's information. I have found that storing health information in a <a href="http://www.practicefusion.com/pages/easy_to_use_EHR.html?utm_source=comment&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=PFLS ">cloud-based</a> format is more protected and secure. For example, Practice Fusion, a web-based <a href="http://www.practicefusion.com?utm_source=comment&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=PFLS">electronic health record</a> , has such high security that a single provider would not be able to afford such security alone and yet the product is completely free! Same with several email providers like Gmail or Ymail, offering a free and secure product in the cloud has become a safer alternative to storing information locally. -Shea Steinberg Jr. Social Media Specialist