Austin Pulmonary Consultants

Austin Pulmonary Consultants, the covered entity (CE), reported that papers containing protected health information (PHI), were improperly disposed of by its cleaning crew. This incident resulted in the impermissible disclosure of PHI of approximately 889 individuals. The types of PHI involved included clinical, demographic, and financial information. The CE provided breach notification to the affected individuals, the media, and HHS. The CE updated its HIPAA policies and procedures and retrained its workforce members on proper disposal of PHI and on its new policies and procedures. It also improved safeguards PHI with regard to the shred bins and cancelled the use of cleaning services by the crew involved in the breach. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted above.