Greater Cincinnati Pathologists

Greater Cincinnati Pathologists, Inc., the covered entity (CE), reported that a physician was the victim of an email phishing attack affecting the protected health information (PHI) of 7,725 individuals. The PHI involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, diagnoses, clinical information, and treatment information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and posted substitute notice on its website. The CE also provided free credit monitoring services to affected individuals. In its mitigation efforts, the CE sanctioned the physician, implemented additional administrative safeguards to better protect its PHI, and retrained its staff on the proper methods of identifying fraudulent email communications. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted.