The physician group at Lubbock, Texas-based University Medical Center Health System, UMC Physicians, began notifying more than 18,000 patients of a recent data breach that may have compromised their protected health information.
In May, the IT team at UMCP discovered an employee's email account had been hacked March 15. The IT team immediately launched an investigation into the incident, which has not uncovered evidence of any PHI misuse.
Potentially affected information includes patients' names, addresses, phone numbers, medical record numbers, diagnoses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, dates of service and health insurance information.
Although the physician group doesn't believe any data has been misused, it is offering affected individuals one year of free credit monitoring and identity restoration services.
"UMC and UMCP understand this incidence may create worry and inconvenience for patients, and the health system sincerely apologizes and regrets that this incident has occurred," a notice on the organization's website reads.