Missing flash drive could constitute federal offense
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, August 18, 2008
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A flash drive containing patient health information and financial records about 1,200 patients with HIV, AIDS, and other medical problems was either lost or stolen from the Harris County Hospital District, the Houston Chronicle reported August 7.
Information on the flash drive was neither encrypted nor password protected, according to the article. The files included names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, medical conditions, treatment, medical records numbers, billing codes and the locations where procedures and visits occurred.
The hospital’s chief financial officer said in a memo that the person who originally saved the patient information to the flash drive was an associate administrator, according to the article. The employee transferred the information onto a portable device to work with the information from home.
The hospital has promised anonymity if the perpetrator returns the files, the newspaper reported.
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