New Mexico Heart Institute

Ambucor Health Solutions, the business associate (BA) of the covered entity (CE), New Mexico Heart Institute, recovered a portable electronic device (a “thumb” drive) from a former employee that contained the protected health information (PHI) for 4,185 of the CE’s patients. The BA informed the CE that there was no indication that the PHI had been misused. The CE provided breach notification to affected individuals, the media, and HHS. Out of an abundance of caution, the BA offered affected individuals one year of identity protection services and, if necessary, related recovery services and $1 million of identity theft insurance at no cost. Following the breach, the CE initiated a review and update of its HIPAA security processes. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted above. The CE also confirmed that the employee who was responsible for this incident no longer works for or has access to its facility.