Gary Smith and assoc

The business associate (BA) of several covered entities, Gary Smith and Associates (GSA), Inc., reported that two former employees impermissibly obtained protected health information (PHI). This breach affected 1,218 individuals. The PHI involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, Medicare claim numbers, phone numbers, email addresses, and other demographic information. As a result of this breach, the BA made several changes to limit employees’ access to customer information, including eliminating remote access to its computer system and restricting door key codes to management employees only in an effort to improve physical security. The BA also implemented additional technical and security safeguards. The BA notified affected individuals, OCR, and the media. OCR obtained assurances that the BA implemented the corrective actions noted above.