Partners In Care

The covered entity (CE), Partners in Care, reported that an employee was the victim of an email phishing scheme affecting the protected health information (PHI) of 3,048 individuals. The PHI involved included names, dates of birth, medical record numbers, Social Security numbers, diagnoses, lab results, health insurance information, and medications prescribed. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and provided substitute notice. In its mitigation efforts, the CE implemented additional administrative, technical, and security safeguards. In addition, the CE retrained its staff on the proper methods of identifying fraudulent email communications. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted. OCR also provided technical assistance to the CE pertaining to the HIPAA Security Rule.