New Data Breach Exposed Information on 200,000+ Urgent Care Patients

It’s unclear whether human error or ill intent on the part of hackers is to blame, but on July 10 the records of more than 200,000 patients who had visited Premier Immediate Medical Care was exposed was “left exposed” for over a month on a practice management software server. The software provider, MedEvolve, says it is notifying current and former Premier patients that their names, billing addresses, telephone numbers, insurance status, and, for some, Social Security numbers could have been compromised while the file was left open, from March 20 to May 4. MedEvolve say it will provide credit monitoring to affected patients for 2 years. It also informed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and state regulators of the incident. The breach is a reminder of the importance of solid electronic security measures in protecting not only the confidential information of your patients, but the integrity and public trust your business has worked hard to maintain. Discuss any concerns you may have and what those measures should include with your software vendor.