Search Privacy Violations, Breaches and Complaints
This database was last updated in December 2015 ago and should only be used as a historical snapshot. More recent data on breaches affecting 500 or more people is available at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Breach Portal.
Northwest Network (VISN 20)
Mentioned in a privacy incident report created by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on October 25, 2011. Also cited in 208 other reports.
Report ID: SPE000000067981, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Reported Entity: VISN 20 Portland, OR
Issue:
Veteran A called the Health Resource Center (HRC) to report that he received two statements through the mail for Veteran B. The VA facility listed on the statement is: Portland, OR. Veteran A returned the statements without its original envelope to the HRC. Veteran A indicates that the address listed on the statement is his and not that of Veteran B. This information was forwarded to the Privacy Officer at the Portland VA Medical Center.The statements mailed are VA Accounts Receivable form 0246 dated 8/24/11 and 9/24/11. One indicated no balance, the other showed two payments and an outstanding balance of $15.Preliminary fact finding shows these two Veterans have the same last name and same last 4 digits in their SSN. The home addresses for both is the same as well. This shows the statement was correctly mailed to the address recorded in VISTA for Veteran B at the time of mailing. The Privacy Officer will be auditing the VISTA record for Veteran B to identify the VA employee who did not validate the Veteran's identity before entering Veteran A's home address into his record. Update: 10/25/11:Veteran B will be sent a notification letter due to PHI being disclosed.
Outcome:
The facility Enrollment Office reviewed and confirmed that information for Veteran A had been incorrectly entered as contact information for Veteran B. The error was quickly fixed in the Veteran's record based on documents that had been scanned into the record. The Privacy Officer is preparing a notification letter to send to the affected Veteran.