TL/DR –
Mass General Brigham has fired two employees who allegedly allowed unauthorized access to patients’ personal data. The health care system detected the breach on April 4, and found that between February 26 and April 4, the employees enabled an unauthorized individual to see private patient information. The patients’ names, addresses, medical record numbers, dates of birth, email addresses, phone numbers, health insurance policy numbers, visit or admission details, and potentially social security and credit card numbers were exposed.
Mass General Brigham Fires Two Employees over Privacy Breach
Two employees at Mass General Brigham were immediately terminated after an unauthorized person gained access to patients’ private information. The health care system found the breach in April after an internal investigation.
The breach occurred between February 26 and April 4, with the unauthorized individual performing some of the employees’ job duties, which included viewing private patient information. This action violated MGB’s privacy and employment policies.
In response to this breach, a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) notice was issued by Mass General Brigham to all affected patients, as reported by MassLive.
The unauthorized person may have accessed names, addresses, medical record numbers, dates of birth, email addresses, phone numbers, health insurance policy numbers, and information about patient visits or admissions. Some individuals also had their Social Security number and/or credit card number involved.
To mitigate the impact of the breach, Mass General Brigham is offering 24 months of free credit monitoring to affected patients and taking steps to prevent future privacy breaches. They also provided a contact, the company’s privacy call center at 1-888-826-9548, for patients who need more information about the incident or to enroll in the free credit monitoring.
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