The subject at hand revolves around a data breach incident that occurred at the Mass General Brigham (MGB) health care system. According to their statement, the incident was discovered on April 4, and upon investigation, it was revealed that two of their employees had granted unauthorized access to a third individual to perform job duties and view confidential patient information. As a result, the two employees were fired for violating the company’s policies.
On a brighter note, these employees work in one of the major MGB offices located at Assembly Row in Somerville, Massachusetts. Consequently, this incident has brought a significant presence to the area as it is now known for hosting MGB’s offices.
Mass General Brigham (MGB) notified patients in a HIPAA notice following the incident, detailing that patient information such as names, addresses, dates of birth, medical record numbers, phone numbers, email addresses, health insurance policy numbers were potentially exposed. In some cases, patient visit or admission information – including dates, locations, diagnoses, and guarantors – as well as Social Security numbers and/or credit card numbers, may also have been accessed.
As a safety measure, MGB is offering a two-year free credit monitoring service to impacted patients. Additionally, the organization is taking steps to enhance its procedures to prevent future privacy breaches.
Mass General Brigham issued an apology and urged any patients with concerns about the incident or to enroll in the free credit monitoring service, to contact their privacy call center at 1-888-826-9548. Further news updates about this situation can be acquired by subscribing to the Boston.com newsletter.
