SSM Health, the covered entity (CE), reported that one of its former employees attempted to fraudulently obtain prescription medications from St. Louis pharmacies using protected health information (PHI) that was acquired during his employment. This breach incident affected 29,579 individuals and the PHI involved included names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, and clinical information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, local law enforcement, and posted substitute notice on its website. The CE also provided complimentary identity theft protection services to affected individuals. In its mitigation efforts, the CE implemented additional administrative and technical safeguards to better protect its PHI and retrained its staff. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted.
