Pioneer Valley Pathology

A Boston Globe employee discovered the unsecured paper medical records of Pioneer Valley Pathology, a group practice with offices inside Holyoke Medical Center (HMC), at a trash transfer station. The breach affected approximately 24,750 individuals. The PHI involved in the breach included names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, insurance information, and medical information. HMC is not the covered entity (CE) responsible for this breach and it field the breach report in error. OCR provided HMC with technical assistance related to breach notification. OCR opened a compliance review against the CE responsible for this breach.