Salt Lake City store sold medical records as scrap paper
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, March 17, 2008
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A 4th grade teacher in Salt Lake City got more than she bargained for when she bought scrap paper from a surplus store, according to a March 10 article in the Deseret Morning News. The scrap paper contained medical records, including names, Social Security numbers, insurance and medical information for 28 Central Florida Regional Hospital patients.
The problem may have been due to a shipping error, according to the article. The hospital shipped the records via UPS to a Las Vegas company for a Medicare audit. The packages were certified and contained tracking information, but one never arrived at its destination. Instead, UPS sold the contents of the undeliverable package as scrap paper months later.
"I'm aghast," Marcy Lippincott, an attorney whose father's records were included in the scrap paper, told the Deseret Morning News. "I'm wondering who to sue. It's a complete invasion of privacy. It's appalling to think your records can be out there somewhere like that."
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