A data breach at a medical billing company could affect emergency room patients at White Plains Hospital, hospital officials said on Tuesday.
The community hospital was one of several New York hospitals affected by a call center employee”™s breach of the billing system at Medical Management LLC, which provides coding and billing services for the emergency department at the hospital. Federal authorities notified the billing company in mid-March that the employee, who has since been fired, had copied personal information from the billing system and disclosed it to a third party.
The hospital in a press release said the private information included names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers, though no information about patients”™ medical history or medical treatment and services apparently were disclosed.
Patients whose personal information may have been disclosed during the employee”™s roughly two-year tenure with Medical Management are being notified by mail and are being offered identity theft protection services at no cost through Kroll Inc., a corporate investigations and risk mitigation firm in Manhattan.
Hospital officials urged potential breach victims to take other precautionary measures to protect their personal information, including placing a fraud alert or security freeze on their accounts through a national credit bureau. They should also carefully review all bills and account statements received and report any suspicious activity to the financial institution of the account in question.
Kroll has opened a dedicated call center at 855-330-6364 that operates from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays for patients whose personal data might have been compromised.
