Central California Alliance for Health

The covered entity (CE), Central California Alliance for Health, reported that several employees were the victims of an email phishing scheme that affected the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 35,940 individuals. The ePHI involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, claims information, diagnoses, lab results, medications prescribed, and other treatment information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, and the media. Upon discovery of the breach, the CE implemented additional administrative, technical, and security safeguards to better protect its ePHI. Employees were also retrained on the proper methods of identifying and responding to fraudulent email communications. During the investigation, OCR provided the CE with technical assistance regarding the HIPAA Security Rule.