Data Breach Impacts More Than One Dozen Anesthesia Providers

A major data breach has occurred at the management company of multiple providers of anesthesia services to hospitals. According to a media breach notice from one of the affected providers, Anesthesia Associates of El Paso, the data breach occurred at its unnamed management company on July 15, 2022.

Unauthorized individuals gained access to the IT systems used by the management company and potentially viewed or obtained sensitive patient information, including patient names, addresses, health insurance policy numbers, payment information, Social Security numbers, and diagnosis and treatment information.

Details about the data breach are scant at present, so the exact nature of the unauthorized access and data breach is not known at present. Anesthesia Associates of El Paso said the management company has taken steps to contain the breach and has implemented additional security controls to prevent further unauthorized access and to better protect patient information.

At this stage, credit monitoring and identity theft protection services do not appear to have been offered to affected individuals, who have been advised to monitor their credit reports and financial statements and to report any suspicious activity. Individual notifications are being mailed to affected individuals.

At present, HIPAA Journal can confirm that at least 13 providers of anesthesia services have been affected, resulting in the exposure and potential theft of the protected health information of more than 380,104 individuals.

This post will be updated as further information about the security incident is obtained.

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