Minnesota Eye Consultants

Minnesota Eye Consultants, the covered entity (CE), reported that documents containing the protected health information (PHI) of approximately 4,556 patients were inadvertently placed into a recycling bin. The PHI involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, diagnoses, lab results, and medication information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, and the media. Substitute notice was also posted on its website. As a result of this breach incident, the CE offered credit monitoring services to all affected individuals, sanctioned the employee responsible, and re-trained all employees on proper disposal methods for PHI. Finally, additional administrative and physical safeguards were implemented to further protect its PHI. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted above.