Vendor sacked for HIPAA breach blunder

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/vendor-sacked-after-HIPAA-breach-blunder

By Erin McCann
Associate Editor
Healthcare IT News
May 1, 2014

Can a subcontractor expect to keep the job after accidentally posting 
protected health information of some 15,000 patients online? A Boston 
teaching hospital says, 'definitely not.'

The 496-bed Boston Medical Center in Massachusetts has fired third-party 
vendor MDF Transcription after hospital officials discovered the company 
posted health records and demographic data of 15,000 patients to the 
vendor's website with no password protection.

"As a result, the notes could have potentially been accessed by 
non-authorized individuals,"  BMC spokesperson Jenny Eriksen Leary wrote 
to Healthcare IT News.

When asked how long the information had been posted publicly online, 
Eriksen Leary said hospital officials are not sure, but they are currently 
working with MDF to determine that information. The hospital has been 
working with MDF Transcription for 10 years.

[...]



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