News
Report of Lost Patient Information by USPS
05/14/10
The U.S. Postal Service's Mail Recovery Center notified Beebe Medical Center that they had lost the contents of one of our envelopes that contained patient claim information, for less than 100 patients. This particular envelope was one of several that were mailed by priority mail to AARP, in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 18, 2010.
We are unable to identify the actual claims in that particular envelope, but what we do know is that all the patients have Medicare as their primary insurance carrier, AARP as a secondary insurer and they received services at Beebe Medical Center or one of our satellite offices, on or before February 18th, 2010.
The patient information in the lost envelope consisted of the patient's name, address, medical record number / Medicare number (which is a Social Security number), date services were rendered, the ordering physician's name and a numeric code that represents the diagnosis given by the physician.
Beebe Medical Center is following all of the requirements set forth by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act which includes notification of the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services and posting the information regarding this breach on our website, in lieu of being able to identify the actual individual patients involved.
Beebe Medical Center followed its stringent policies, procedures and systems to protect patient information. The information was lost entirely due to actions of the U.S. Postal Service.
If you have any questions regarding this data breach, please contact the Patient Business Services department, at 302-645-3100 ext. 5619
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