Subcontractor snooping source of Iowa breach

Beth Walsh | | Health Exec | Cybersecurity

An employee of an Iowa health system's third-party contractor gained unauthorized access to patient records, impacting 1,800 patients.

UnityPoint Health in West Des Moines is notifying those patients after discovering the access through a routine audit on Aug. 8, according to the organization. UnityPoint discovered the employee of the contractor had used a password of individuals authorized to access to EHR system from February through August.

Data accessed include patients names, addresses, dates of birth, health insurance data, medical diagnoses and other health data. Additionally, for nearly 200 patients, Social Security numbers and driver's license numbers may have been viewed. UnityPoint is offering credit monitoring to those affected. 

 

Beth Walsh,

Editor

Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.

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