Billing Service Data Breach Caused by Alleged Identity Thief

Salem (Va.) Hospitalists, a medical group practice, has begun notifying patients of a data breach caused when a contractor's former employee who is being investigated for identity theft accessed their personal and health information.

The individual who accessed the patients' information is a former employee of a company in Brentwood, Tenn., that provides billing services to Salem Hospitalists. An investigation into the former employee for identity theft by multiple police departments and the U.S. Secret Service revealed the former employee had accessed many patients' personal and health information from Aug. 27, 2012 to April 23, 2013.

The former employee viewed affected patients' names, Social Security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers and health insurance information, according to the letter sent by Salem Hospitalists.

It is still unclear how many patients have been affected by this data breach, and investigators have no evidence the former employee has misused any of the patients' information for fraudulent purposes at this time.

As a result of the data breach, Salem Hospitalists is offering one year of free credit monitoring to affected patients.

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