On September 9, 2015, a business associate (BA), Standard Register, erroneously mailed announcements concerning a retirement for the covered entity (CE), Rush University Medical Center, which resulted in misdirected letters being sent to the wrong patients associated with the clinic. The breach affected 1,529 individuals and included patients’ names. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, the media, and affected individuals, and provided substitute notice on its website. The CE also entered into a BA agreement with Standard Register and created policies and procedures to establish quality measures for mass mailings. OCR obtained documentation confirming that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.
