A former employee of Martinsburg, W. Va.-based Berkeley Medical Center — which is part of WVU Medicine University Healthcare — will pay more than $22,000 in restitution to resolve allegations of obtaining patients' information to open credit cards and other financial accounts, according to Herald-Mail Media.
Angela Dawn Roberts, who also goes by Angela Dawn Lee, pleaded guilty in July to one count of identity theft. She admitted to unlawfully acquiring the names, signatures, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and driver's-license numbers of 10 people and transferring them to co-defendant Ajarhi Roberts, who pleaded guilty to bank fraud in February and is scheduled to be sentenced May 21. A federal judge sentenced Ms. Roberts April 16 to five years probation, along with the fine.
The crimes were reportedly committed between March 2016 and the end of January 2017 in Berkeley County, W.Va., and elsewhere. After an internal investigation linked Ms. Roberts to the victims, she was suspended Jan. 19 and fired about one week later. In February, WVU Medicine University Healthcare said a former Berkeley Medical Center employee was being prosecuted in connection with the theft of ex-patients' protected health information, and the hospital mailed notification letters to 7,000 patients.
Ms. Roberts scheduled patients at Berkeley Medical Center and Jefferson Medical Center in Ranson, W.Va., for outpatient procedures and pre-surgical testing. She obtained patients' PHI by writing it on sheets of paper and printing copies of their driver's licenses, according to Herald-Mail Media.
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