Health Alliance Plan, the covered entity (CE), reported that an employee was the victim of an email phishing attack affecting approximately 2,814 individuals. The protected health information (PHI) involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, diagnoses/conditions, medications prescribed, and lab results. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and provided substitute notice. To mitigate this breach, the CE implemented additional administrative and technical safeguards to better protect its data. As a result of OCR’s investigation, the CE conducted additional HIPAA training and provided security reminders on phishing topics. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted.
