SSM Health Cancer Care

The covered entity (CE), SSM Health Cancer Care, erroneously mailed letters to the addresses of other patients due to using an inaccurate electronic file. The breach affected 670 individuals and included individuals’ names and their inferred treatment relationship. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media. The CE performed a root cause analysis to identify risk areas and opportunities to strengthen controls and also retrained the individual who had erroneously sent out the mailings. The CE also created a new policy and procedures for patient mailings. OCR obtained documentation evidencing that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed.