Eli's Rehab Report

News of a Northern Michigan clinic that recently lost an undisclosed amount of patient information may cause you to tighten your clinic's HIPAA controls.

On July 21, the U.S. Postal Service told Northwoods Physical Therapy Clinic officials that a disk full of private patient information the clinic sent through the mail was missing, according to Northwoods' attorney, as reported by WPBN-TV 7&4 News in Traverse City, Mich.

Northwoods Physical Therapy Clinic officials couldn't comment directly, but its attorney claims that the disk contained information of patients who received treatment at the clinic from 1998 through 2006 when the disk was sent out.

The facility will not comment on how many patients may be affected or what type of personal information may be lost. Under federal privacy laws, the Northwoods attorney says the clinic provided public notice of the incident via newspaper advertisement warning of the lost disk.