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Worker charged with stealing patient information
Healthcare Security Weekly, April 21, 2008
A 38-year-old Brooklyn man who worked in the admissions department at a prestigious Manhattan hospital has been charged with stealing and selling information on nearly 50,000 patients.
The former worker from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center was arraigned in federal court April 12 for allegedly stealing records that contained the names, phone numbers, and, in some cases, Social Security numbers of patients. He was arrested shortly after the hospital announced the security breach on April 11, reported the Associated Press (AP).
The former employee is charged with computer fraud, identity document fraud, transmission of stolen property, and sale of stolen property, the AP reported. Prosecutors said the man used his access to the hospital’s computer registration system to acquire patient information over a two-year period. The crime was discovered when postal investigators discovered printouts of patient records in Atlanta during a criminal investigation there.
The man confessed and told postal agents he was approached in 2006 by someone offering money in exchange for information. The hospital suspended him in February after being contacted by federal investigators, the AP reported. A hospital spokesman said none of the stolen data contained private health information. The hospital is in the process of contacting thousands of patients, setting up a hotline for them, and offering credit monitoring services, the AP reported.
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