Gentle Dentistry Group

A workforce member of the covered entity (CE), Gentle Dentistry Group, emailed a product promotion to 831 patients, disclosing recipients’ email addresses to each other. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, the media, and the affected individuals, including any required substitute notice to the affected individuals. Following the breach, the CE updated its practices to prohibit sending an email to multiple patients, provided a refresher training to its workforce regarding its email protocols, and sanctioned the workforce member responsible for the breach incident. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed. Additionally, the CE is expected to conduct a risk analysis and implement a corresponding remediation plan.