Glitch sends letters to the wrong people

Beth Walsh | | Health Exec | Cybersecurity

A Colorado state health agency is notifying patients of a breach after a technical glitch sent out letters containing protected health information (PHI) to the wrong recipients.

Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing has notified 1,622 households that their protected health information, names, addresses and employment/income data were compromised following a coding error.

Letters were mailed between May 25 and July 5 and the problem was identified on July 1 when a resident notified county workers after receiving a letter not intended for the resident, according to a release. The technical error was corrected by the Governor’s Office of Information Technology on July 5. 

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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