Home Health & Hospice Week

Industry Note:

E-Mail Gaffe Leads To Hospice HIPAA Breach Notification

A slip-up by a hospice employee is leading to some bad press for one hospice — and worries for their patients whose PHI was exposed.

An unidentified employee at Pasadena, Md.-based Hospice of the Chesapeake e-mailed spreadsheets containing protected health information for more than 500 records to their own personal e-mail account so they could work from home, according to news reports. The data included names, ages, dates of service and diagnoses, but not Social Security numbers, dates of birth or financial data.

Hospice of the Chesapeake said it has reviewed its policies to ensure such a situation does not happen again, reports the Baltimore Sun. And the hospice notified those involved after it became aware of the potential breach in August.

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