A husband and wife are accused of stealing over 80 emergency room patient records at New York City-based Lenox Hill Hospital and taking over their credit card accounts to buy more than $300,000 in fraudulent purchases from high-end stores, according to CBS New York.
Kyle Steed began working at Lenox Hill in 2011 and was fired this past April. Between January 2014 and February 2015, Mr. Steed stole patient information from paper records. He then gave the information to his wife, Krystle, who used it to take over the patients' credit card accounts.
Ms. Steed posed as account holders and received immediate access to the victims' accounts by pretending to be at a physician's office where she needed access to pay a bill. If her intial plan didn't work, she allegedly called the credit card company repeatedly until a representative would grant her access, according to the report.
Ms. Steed used the account to buy a total of $300,000 in high-end retail merchandise, including designer purses. In addition, she tried to make over $1 million in purchases at Saks Fifth Avenue.
Lenox Hill is notifying patients affected by the theft.
Kyle and Krystle Steed were arraigned Dec. 10. They're due in court in January under charges of grand larceny and identify theft.
More news and analysis:
UnitedHealth to buy 32nd Brazilian hospital for $350M
Kaiser hospital fined $150k for unsafe needle disposal
Cigna CEO: We haven't made money on ACA marketplace plans