A piece posted by ComputerWold covers the Office for Civil Rights’ listing of reported breaches of unsecured protected health information as required by section 13402(e)(4) of the HITECH Act. The listing (also known to the health care industry as “The Wall of Shame”) is posted in an accessible online format with brief summaries of the breach cases that OCR has investigated and closed, as well as the names of private practice providers who have reported breaches of unsecured protected health information to the Secretary.
“Since Sept. 2009, 477 breaches affecting 500 people or more each have been reported to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In total, the health records of 20,970,222 people have been compromised, the OCR said.”
Among the largest breaches reported was TRICARE Management Activity, the Department of Defense’s health care program, which reported 4.9 million records lost when backup tapes went missing. Another five breaches involved 1 million or more records each.