Dear Patients,
New Medical Health Care & Restoration Health recently discovered that a person who was employed by New Medical in October 2022 provided a patient list to a person who was not employed with our practice and who did not have authorization to receive the patient list. The person who received the list was assisting a physician departing our practice. We believe the person receiving the list received it on or about October 27, 2022, and provided it to the physician who left our practice. We believe the list was likely later used to contact the patients and set appointments at the new practice of the departed physician. We do not believe the list was used or will be used for identity or medical ID theft, but because this was an improper use of patient medical information without authorization, the law requires that we provide notice of the event.
If a patient’s personal information was contained in the list and we have a current address, that patient will be receiving a letter from us informing of the breach and providing additional information. The information involved patients who were seen at our practice by one physician and included name, phone number(s), address, email, date of birth and other demographic information. It may have also included the name and/or address of a patient’s employer, patient’s emergency contact information, name and address of the patient’s guarantor, preferred pharmacy, and information about insurance including subscriber number and group number. The documents did not include any social security numbers, medical or diagnosis information, and no financial information, credit card/debit card numbers or bank account numbers were included.
*SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION* – 4/20/2023: In continuing to investigate the above breach, we learned that the employee is also likely to have downloaded additional patient appointment lists for 2021-2023. The involved lists were patient appointment schedules for certain patients receiving BioTE medication and treatment therapy. It is possible that information from the appointment lists was provided to the employee’s new place of employment in October or November 2022 or at some point after she left our employment in November 2022, and we only recently discovered it.
Along with your name, these additional appointment lists contained your phone number(s), date of birth, address, email address, account balance, appointment date/time, reason for appointment (minimal description) and information about your insurance including subscriber number and group number. Please note: Your social security number, credit/financial information, bank account and email address were not included in these patient lists.
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You may have been contacted without your permission by this other medical practice as a result of the employee’s release of information to her new employer. If you are contacted by any medical practice and you don’t want to be, you have the right to contact that practice and inform them you want to “opt-out” of all future communications. If you believe a medical practice has contacted you without your permission using information from New Medical patient lists, please use the toll-free number below and let the operator know.
New Medical sincerely regrets any concern caused by this incident and we are taking appropriate steps to respond. By the time we learned of the release, the practice employee who was involved was no longer employed at our practice. We are working with the former employee, the person who received the list and the physician who departed our practice to obtain assurances that they will cease contacting patients using information on the list, will not further disclose any patient information and will not use the information from the list for improper purposes. We have and will contact the appropriate authorities to deal with this situation. Our employees have been trained regarding the privacy of patient information, and we will continue to provide additional education to our employees on how to protect patient information and the importance of patient confidentiality both during and after leaving their employment.
The physicians and staff at New Medical Health Care and Restoration Health take patient confidentiality and trust very seriously. For questions, patients can call a special toll-free number that has been set up for this purpose: 877-522-6330 Call Center Hours: 8am-8pm M-F. If you have further questions after contacting the special data response number, please contact: Liz Simon at 316-773-1212 ext. 104 or Robin Hawkins at 316-773-1212 ext. 101.
Again, we take patient privacy seriously and we sincerely regret any inconvenience or concern caused by this incident.
Sincerely,
The providers and staff of New Medical Health Care and Restoration Health