HME Specialists

The covered entity (CE), HME Specialists dba Home Medical Equipment Holdco, reported that multiple employees were the subjects of an email phishing scheme that compromised the protected health information (PHI) of 153,013 individuals. The PHI involved included names, dates of birth, diagnoses, Social Security and driver’s license numbers, financial information, and other treatment information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and provided substitute notice on its website. In response to the breach, the CE implemented additional administrative and technical safeguards to better protect sensitive data. Staff were retrained on email security precautions. OCR provided technical assistance to the CE regarding the HIPAA Rules.