Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency

The covered entity (CE), Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency, reported a breach of unsecured PHI when a break-in occurred at the CE’s storage area. The CE initially reported that the breach affected approximately 25,000 individuals. However, an internal investigation, conducted with law enforcement assistance, revealed later that no breach had occurred because the break-in did not affect the paper records. OCR provided technical assistance to the CE. The CE implemented additional physical safeguards, updated its HIPAA policies and procedures and trained its staff on privacy and security awareness.