RI hospital to pay patients $150K for data breach

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island will pay $150,000 to settle data breach allegations that affected more than 12,000 Massachusetts patients. Attorney General Martha Coakley announced that the breach was reported to her office in November 2012, and included patients' names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, dates of exams, physicians' names, and ultrasound images. The consent judgment was approved July 22 in a Suffolk Superior Court. WIH first realized in 2012 it was missing 19 unencrypted back-up tapes from two of its Prenatal Diagnostic Centers, one located in Providence and the other in New Bedford. The tapes had personal information of 12,127 Mass. residents.