Hospital alerts 1,480 patients after employee grabs credit card info
Data theft occurred over a three-year period and allegedly was used to make personal purchases.
Financial information of about 1,500 patients of West Kendall Baptist Hospital in Miami was misused for nearly three years, requiring the organization to alert patients and arrange credit and identity protection services.
A registration employee at the hospital is now in legal trouble after using patient credit card information from 1,480 patients to make personal purchases over the past three years.
The hospital discovered the scam on March 9, terminated the employee and called the police. Now, the patients whose information was misused will receive one year of credit monitoring and identity theft protection services from a credit reporting agency, which the hospital did not identify.
In a notice to patients, the hospital reaffirmed its commitment to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patient information and expressed regret that the breach occurred.
Also See: Years-old breach in Boston could affect thousands
“If you were a patient at West Kendall Baptist Hospital between August 2014 and March 2018 and made a payment for any services with a credit card with this registration employee, you may have been affected by this incident,” the patient notification letter states. The information that may have been compromised includes names, addresses and credit card information, the letter indicates.
West Kendall Baptist Hospital, which is part of Baptist Health in South Florida, told patients that it now is exploring ways to prevent future such incidents, as well as additional ways to further protect patient information.
The hospital did not respond to a request for information about the incident and on the specific steps it was taking to prevent reoccurrence.
A registration employee at the hospital is now in legal trouble after using patient credit card information from 1,480 patients to make personal purchases over the past three years.
The hospital discovered the scam on March 9, terminated the employee and called the police. Now, the patients whose information was misused will receive one year of credit monitoring and identity theft protection services from a credit reporting agency, which the hospital did not identify.
In a notice to patients, the hospital reaffirmed its commitment to protect the privacy and confidentiality of patient information and expressed regret that the breach occurred.Also See: Years-old breach in Boston could affect thousands
“If you were a patient at West Kendall Baptist Hospital between August 2014 and March 2018 and made a payment for any services with a credit card with this registration employee, you may have been affected by this incident,” the patient notification letter states. The information that may have been compromised includes names, addresses and credit card information, the letter indicates.
West Kendall Baptist Hospital, which is part of Baptist Health in South Florida, told patients that it now is exploring ways to prevent future such incidents, as well as additional ways to further protect patient information.
The hospital did not respond to a request for information about the incident and on the specific steps it was taking to prevent reoccurrence.
More for you
Loading data for hdm_tax_topic #care-team-experience...