An employee of the covered entity's (CE) business associate (BA) mistakenly mailed protected health information (PHI) to other individuals due to a human error in sorting the data contained in an Excel spreadsheet. The mailing affected 5,696 individuals and included names and prescription drug names. The BA provided breach notification to the affected individuals, HHS, and the media. As a result of OCR's investigation, OCR verified that the CE had a proper BA agreement in place that restricted the BA's use and disclosure of PHI and required the BA to safeguard all PHI. OCR obtained assurances that the BA completed the corrective actions noted above. The BA also stated that it has developed a plan to improve safeguards by implementing additional quality checks and controls for mailings.
