Highlands Cashier Hospital

A business associate (BA), Computer Programs and Systems, Inc., adjusted the covered entity's (CE) firewall in a manner that potentially exposed the protected health information (PHI) of 26,115 individuals on the internet. The types of PHI included patients' names, addresses, dates of birth, treatment information, and social security numbers (for 21,072 individuals). The CE sent timely breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media. The CE also posted notification about the breach on its website. In response to the breach, the CE implemented additional firewall safeguard procedures, began monitoring traffic to and from its website, and began conducting external vulnerability scans. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.