By Susan Salisbury April 11, 2016
More than 1,000 Palm Beach County Health Department clients are victims of a data breach the department learned of in February.
Health Department spokesman Tim O’Connor said Monday that the U.S. Justice Department provided the list and is investigating further. The department had to verify that the individuals were its clients. It contacted them by mail. Letters have been received by the clients, who are now contacting the department for more information about what they should do. The department already told the clients how to review their credit history and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement. The list included names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, Medicaid numbers, phone numbers and medical record numbers of people who were clients of the health department. O’Connor said its procedures require it to notify the clients before issuing a public notice about the breach.
It’s not the first time health department patients’ personal information has been breached. On May 15, 2014 a former Palm Beach County Health Department clerk was sentenced to two years in prison for using her job to steal people’s identities to seek fraudulent tax refunds. Salita St. Simon was a senior clerk in the Department’s Belle Glade office. She admitted to stealing personal information, such as names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and medical record numbers from roughly 2,800 clients over the course of a year, according to court records. St. Simon said she provided the data to acquaintances who used it to obtain tax refunds. It was widely reported in 2012 that 741 income tax returns worth a total of $1.1 million in refunds were filed from a single address in Belle Glade. It is not clear whether there was a connection to St. Simon’s case. O’Connor said that since St. Simon’s arrest, the department has conducted more detailed background checks and increased the interview process on people who will have access to records. Health department officials believe that the clients in this year’s breach are not the same as those in the St. Simon case. Other Palm Beach County Health Department incidents of information breaches, but which have not been linked to actual identity theft include:
- In 2005, 6,500 HIV positive patients’ names were on a confidential list that was emailed to 800 people, O’Connor said.
- Also in 2005, 15 pages form a confidential list of HIV-positive patients disappeared from an analysts’ desk.
- In 2007 a file cabinet being sold at a surplus auction contained test results of patients who tested positive for various communicable diseases.
If you receive a notice or have been a patient and have questions about the records breach, call the health department at 855-438-2778 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Tips if you think your medical records have been breached
If you believe that you have been a victim of identity theft and provide the credit reporting agency with a valid police report the reporting agency cannot charge you to place, lift or remove a security freeze on your credit reports. In all other cases, a credit reporting agency may charge you up to $5 each time you place temporarily lift or permanently remove a security freeze.
You may also want to place a fraud alert on your credit report. You are entitled to receive a free credit report annually from each of the three credit bureaus. Even if you do not find suspicious activity on your initial credit report, the Federal Trade Commission recommends that you check your credit reports and credit card statement periodically. For more information, go to www.annualcreditreport.com or call 877-322-8228 or contact these agencies:
•TransUnion: 800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P. O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790.
•Equifax: 800-525-6285; www.equifax.com; P. O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
•Experian: 888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P. O. Box 9554, Allen, TX 75013
In addition, if you believe that you have been the victim of identity theft, you have the right to file a police report and to obtain a copy of that report. Many creditors will require the information from the police report before excusing you from paying for any fraudulent charges or debts.
You can also file a complaint with the Federal Trade commission athttp://www.ftc.gov or at 811- ID-Theft (877-438-4338).
Here are some things that could help you determine that your medical information may have been uses by someone else:
•Getting a bill for medical services you didn’t receive.
•Being contacted by a debt collector about medical debt you don’t owe.
•Seeing medical collection notices on your credit report that you do not recognize.
•Attempting to make a legitimate insurance claim and being told by your health plan that you’vereached your limit on benefits.
•Being denied insurance because your medical record shows a condition you don’t have.
•Noticing on a statement from your health plan that the health plan paid claims for care you did no receive.
If you believe someone else may have used your medical information, you may wish to consider taking additional steps which are outline on the Federal Trade commission’s website at www.ftc.gov.
Source: Federal Trade Commission