Data on thousands of Boston-area patients left in landfill
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Carney Hospital in Dorchester, Mass., Milton Hospital in Milton, Mass., and Holyoke Medical Center in Holyoke, Mass., have released statements, noting that Goldthwaite Associates, an external billing agency that works with their pathology groups “improperly disposed of paper records containing private patient information.”
Goldthwaite has informed the providers that no more than three years of these documents were disposed at a transfer station in Georgetown, Mass.
The information on the documents reportedly includes names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, insurance information and in some cases diagnoses relating to the pathology tests. However, the documents contained no financial or credit card information.
Based on its initial investigation, Milton Hospital said the potential breach appears to be limited to pathology patients from 2007 to 2009. Its investigation concludes that 15,252 individual pathology tests were conducted by Milton Pathologist during that time period, and encompasses between 8,000 and 12,000 patients.
Likewise, Carney said that, based on its “current understanding,” the potential breach is limited to pathology patients who had tissue studies conducted from 2007 to 2009, adding that all impacted patients whose billing records were involved will be notified.
Carney added that at this time, it believes the “billing company did not regularly dispose of their records in this landfill and that this is an isolated incident.”