Article: Medical Identity Theft: Providence Health’s Serious Pain

Baseline Magazine reports: Medical Identity Theft: Providence Health’s Serious Pain

“A phone call that Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2006 brought news that every CIO dreads. Someone had stolen a computer bag out of a systems analyst’s car four nights before. Gone were 10 computer disks and tapes holding information on what would turn out to be more than 365,000 patients—everything from Social Security numbers and birth and death dates to diagnoses, prescriptions and insurance numbers. Data on doctors was missing, too, including Medicare and Medicaid numbers, state license numbers, names, addresses and phone numbers.”

Employees were foolish and reckless with how they handled the health records…

“At most facilities across the company, employees back up data daily to tapes and disks and send it off to be stored in a secured building, O’Brien says. But at the company’s Home and Community Services unit in Portland, which cares for frail and elderly patients in their homes, employees took the backups home themselves, in their own cars, she says.”

These foolish and careless actions have a significant impact on the company as well. Not only has their reputation been badly damaged, but…

“Providence has spent $7 million so far responding to the breach. “This was not a cheap mistake,” CIO O’Brien says.”

Ultimately consumers end up paying the bill for all this nonsense that could have easily been prevented.

Related Links:

• More articles about careless organizations that allow data to be stolen…

Roland Reinhart is an interactive marketing professional concerned about how companies handle personally identifiable information. His observations can be found at Chaos365.com and AdMadMan.com.

©2006 Roland Reinhart. All Rights Reserved.