Employee fraud hits Baptist Health in Arkansas
Technorati Tag: Security Breach
Date Reported:
7/2/08
Organization:
Baptist Health*
*Baptist Health is the largest not-for-profit healthcare organization in Arkansas
Contractor/Consultant/Branch:
None
Victims:
Patients
Number Affected:
~1,800
Types of Data:
"name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, and reason for coming to Baptist Health"
Breach Description:
"LITTLE ROCK (AP) - A North Little Rock woman has been arrested for using financial information from patients at Baptist Health to illegally obtain Wal-Mart gift cards for her own use. The hospital has notified about 1,800 patrons of the ID theft."
Reference URL:
Associated Press via WXVT Channel 15 News
KARK Channel 4 News
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Report Credit:
Toby Manthey, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Response:
From the online sources cited above:
Baptist Health has sent letters warning about 1,800 patients that the hospital system’s records may have been breached
[Evan] Uh, "may have been breached"?!
The notification came after the arrest of a Baptist Health employee at a Wal-Mart store on 25 counts of financial identity fraud.
[Evan] Wouldn't life be grand if we could trust our employees? Maybe, I suppose.
The letters, mailed last week, follow the firing of the woman in early June
North Little Rock police say Tamara Hill, 30, of that city worked at Baptist Health Medical Center-North Little Rock in the emergency department.
Hill, an admissions clerk, was arrested May 30 at the Wal-Mart
Ebony Flowers, 25, also of North Little Rock, was arrested at the store the same day on three counts of identity fraud
Flowers was listed in a police report as a janitor for the North Little Rock School District
[Evan] Key word is "was".
Baptist Health recorded more than 950,000 patient visits systemwide in 2007, a number that includes repeat visits.
Mark Lowman, spokesman for the Little Rock-based Baptist Health system, confirmed that the system fired the employee after notification of the arrest.
Police reports say the women used a victim’s personal information to obtain temporary Wal-Mart "account authorization numbers" - credit cards, essentially - used to buy Wal-Mart gift cards.
The victim reported to police that he had not authorized the transactions
the same victim confirmed he was a Baptist Health patient
He expressed appreciation of the handling of the case by the system and by the North Little Rock police.
Among the items found during a search connected with the arrest of Hill was personal information for 24 other people, including "screen shots" - printouts showing the exact appearance of the images on a computer screen - that showed victims’ personal information.
[Evan] This seems like confirmation that "may have been breached" is not all that accurate.
Also found were four Wal-Mart gift cards and $ 1,490 in cash
Police found a small bag of marijuana on Flowers, according to the reports. In a search connected with her arrest, they also discovered a. 25-caliber magazine with six bullets, as well as a receipt for four of the gift cards and information on three-identity theft victims.
[Evan] A thug.
The U. S. Secret Service is helping with the investigation.
"Due to a breach of our information systems security policies, there is a possibility that some personal information, such as your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, and reason for coming to Baptist Health, was accessed by an unauthorized person."
[Evan] This is from the letter to the victims.
No information in the patient’s "medical records" and no information about the patient’s diagnosis or prognosis was accessed
while no "medical record" information was accessed, the letter mentioned the patient’s "reason for coming" to the system possibly was accessed
Lowman said a reason stated by a patient using the system isn’t considered medical information because the reason is a layman’s explanation, not one from a medical professional.
[Evan] This is Mark Lowman, spokesman for the Little Rock-based Baptist Health system
He said the breach wouldn’t violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.
But Pam Dixon, executive director of the San Diego-based World Privacy Forum, a privacy advocacy group, thinks all the information mentioned in the letter falls under HIPAA.
"It doesn’t matter that [it’s not ] a prognosis or diagnosis," she said.
[Evan] Splitting hairs. The bottom line is that confidential personal information was stolen and there are victims. Whether or not it is a HIPAA violation seems somewhat irrelevant.
Dixon found the system’s letter lacking in several respects, such as clarifying the exact meaning of a "reason for coming to Baptist Health." The letter also should have mentioned when and for how long the breach occurred, she said.
"Almost all breach letters have that," Dixon added.
[Evan] Almost all breach letters have what? A mention about for how long the breach occurred? I must be reading some of the wrong breach letters because it seems to me that this information is 50/50 at best. Also missing is the "we have no reason to believe that the information will be misused", but this one doesn't fit does it?
Dixon said Baptist Health should have offered in the letter to set up free credit monitoring for victims.
[Evan] Why? One year (or two) of credit monitoring is almost useless. Credit monitoring alerts a victim after fraud has already occurred and one year (or two) of monitoring is too limited for information that has a much longer lifespan. I guess credit monitoring would be better than nothing, but not by much.
Lowman said the health system continually conducts audits to know which staff members are accessing what information, and whether or not the access is appropriate.
[Evan] Good!
"We’re always looking to provide better audits and better oversight of private, confidential and protected information," Lowman said.
[Evan] And Good!
Commentary:
Preventing and detecting employee fraud has always been a challenge. This doesn't mean we give up though. We have some tools at our disposal such as employee background checks, role-based access control, segregation of duties, and job rotation to name a few.
I don't think that these two crooks are anything more than common criminals. The fact of the matter is that identity theft and fraud are very easy crimes to commit and require very little skill.
Past Breaches:
Unknown
Date Reported:7/2/08
Organization:
Baptist Health*
*Baptist Health is the largest not-for-profit healthcare organization in Arkansas
Contractor/Consultant/Branch:
None
Victims:
Patients
Number Affected:
~1,800
Types of Data:
"name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, and reason for coming to Baptist Health"
Breach Description:
"LITTLE ROCK (AP) - A North Little Rock woman has been arrested for using financial information from patients at Baptist Health to illegally obtain Wal-Mart gift cards for her own use. The hospital has notified about 1,800 patrons of the ID theft."
Reference URL:
Associated Press via WXVT Channel 15 News
KARK Channel 4 News
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Report Credit:
Toby Manthey, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Response:
From the online sources cited above:
Baptist Health has sent letters warning about 1,800 patients that the hospital system’s records may have been breached
[Evan] Uh, "may have been breached"?!
The notification came after the arrest of a Baptist Health employee at a Wal-Mart store on 25 counts of financial identity fraud.
[Evan] Wouldn't life be grand if we could trust our employees? Maybe, I suppose.
The letters, mailed last week, follow the firing of the woman in early June
North Little Rock police say Tamara Hill, 30, of that city worked at Baptist Health Medical Center-North Little Rock in the emergency department.
Hill, an admissions clerk, was arrested May 30 at the Wal-Mart
Ebony Flowers, 25, also of North Little Rock, was arrested at the store the same day on three counts of identity fraud
Flowers was listed in a police report as a janitor for the North Little Rock School District
[Evan] Key word is "was".
Baptist Health recorded more than 950,000 patient visits systemwide in 2007, a number that includes repeat visits.
Mark Lowman, spokesman for the Little Rock-based Baptist Health system, confirmed that the system fired the employee after notification of the arrest.
Police reports say the women used a victim’s personal information to obtain temporary Wal-Mart "account authorization numbers" - credit cards, essentially - used to buy Wal-Mart gift cards.
The victim reported to police that he had not authorized the transactions
the same victim confirmed he was a Baptist Health patient
He expressed appreciation of the handling of the case by the system and by the North Little Rock police.
Among the items found during a search connected with the arrest of Hill was personal information for 24 other people, including "screen shots" - printouts showing the exact appearance of the images on a computer screen - that showed victims’ personal information.
[Evan] This seems like confirmation that "may have been breached" is not all that accurate.
Also found were four Wal-Mart gift cards and $ 1,490 in cash
Police found a small bag of marijuana on Flowers, according to the reports. In a search connected with her arrest, they also discovered a. 25-caliber magazine with six bullets, as well as a receipt for four of the gift cards and information on three-identity theft victims.
[Evan] A thug.
The U. S. Secret Service is helping with the investigation.
"Due to a breach of our information systems security policies, there is a possibility that some personal information, such as your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, and reason for coming to Baptist Health, was accessed by an unauthorized person."
[Evan] This is from the letter to the victims.
No information in the patient’s "medical records" and no information about the patient’s diagnosis or prognosis was accessed
while no "medical record" information was accessed, the letter mentioned the patient’s "reason for coming" to the system possibly was accessed
Lowman said a reason stated by a patient using the system isn’t considered medical information because the reason is a layman’s explanation, not one from a medical professional.
[Evan] This is Mark Lowman, spokesman for the Little Rock-based Baptist Health system
He said the breach wouldn’t violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.
But Pam Dixon, executive director of the San Diego-based World Privacy Forum, a privacy advocacy group, thinks all the information mentioned in the letter falls under HIPAA.
"It doesn’t matter that [it’s not ] a prognosis or diagnosis," she said.
[Evan] Splitting hairs. The bottom line is that confidential personal information was stolen and there are victims. Whether or not it is a HIPAA violation seems somewhat irrelevant.
Dixon found the system’s letter lacking in several respects, such as clarifying the exact meaning of a "reason for coming to Baptist Health." The letter also should have mentioned when and for how long the breach occurred, she said.
"Almost all breach letters have that," Dixon added.
[Evan] Almost all breach letters have what? A mention about for how long the breach occurred? I must be reading some of the wrong breach letters because it seems to me that this information is 50/50 at best. Also missing is the "we have no reason to believe that the information will be misused", but this one doesn't fit does it?
Dixon said Baptist Health should have offered in the letter to set up free credit monitoring for victims.
[Evan] Why? One year (or two) of credit monitoring is almost useless. Credit monitoring alerts a victim after fraud has already occurred and one year (or two) of monitoring is too limited for information that has a much longer lifespan. I guess credit monitoring would be better than nothing, but not by much.
Lowman said the health system continually conducts audits to know which staff members are accessing what information, and whether or not the access is appropriate.
[Evan] Good!
"We’re always looking to provide better audits and better oversight of private, confidential and protected information," Lowman said.
[Evan] And Good!
Commentary:
Preventing and detecting employee fraud has always been a challenge. This doesn't mean we give up though. We have some tools at our disposal such as employee background checks, role-based access control, segregation of duties, and job rotation to name a few.
I don't think that these two crooks are anything more than common criminals. The fact of the matter is that identity theft and fraud are very easy crimes to commit and require very little skill.
Past Breaches:
Unknown
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