The Manquen Vance group health plan broker and consultancy firm based in Michigan, called Cornerstone Municipal Advisory Group in the past – is notifying 7,018 people with regards to a potential exposure of their personal and health information (PHI).
The investigation began on November 16, 2020 because the company found suspicious activity with an employee’s email account. Manquen Vance confirmed that unauthorized individuals accessed the account between November 1 and 16. Only one email account had been breached.
Although it is probable that emails and attachments that contain sensitive information were accessed or duplicated, there is no certain evidence found to indicate that was the fact. The overdue issuance of notifications was caused by the labor intensive process of verifying every single message in the email account for sensitive data. That course of action was done on February 2, 2021 and affirmed that members’ names, Social Security numbers, and medical insurance information had possibly been exposed. Since the incident, Manquen Vance has done something to strengthen email security to avert the same breaches later on.
DNF Medical Centers Lays Off Worker for Directing Blood Samples to Unauthorized Lab
DNF Medical Centers located in Florida is informing 846 persons concerning a compromise of their PHI. The healthcare provider found out on February 18, 2021 that a worker was rerouting the blood samples of patients to an unauthorized lab for tests, rather than LabCorp or Quest.
Patient information files were provided with the blood samples which contained patient names, birth dates, addresses, phone numbers, medical care provider name, and the ending 4 numbers of Social Security numbers. DNF Medical Centers explained that the laboratory carried out medical tests as required and gave back the results; nonetheless, considering that this was an unapproved lab, DNF Medical Centers is concerned with the trustworthiness of the results. Consequently, affected patients were informed and requested to do their blood tests once again for free.
An investigation of the occurrence was started and the worker was questioned and later laid off. DNF Medical Centers is convinced no personal information was misused or further exposed and that the samples were routed to the laboratory for the needed medical checks to be conducted to enable the lab to charge patients’ health insurance providers for the medical tests.
PHI Breach in Peak Vista Community Health Break In
On March 7, 2021, burglars broke into a facility of Peak Vista Community Health based in Colorado Springs and took computer s. On March 31, 2021, Peak Vista established that two taken computers stored patient data having names, dates of birth, telephone numbers, health record numbers, medicine listings, and diagnosis details.
Peak Vista has submitted a report submitted regarding the break-in to police authorities, still the equipment hasn’t been retrieved. Though it’s possible that the burglars viewed the content on the devices, there is no proof of actual or attempted misuse of patient data found. Peak Vista Community Health claimed just a small number of of its patients were impacted and all have now been advised by mail.