Health care data breach exposes data of 650+ medical providers

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PFC debt collection health care data breach overview: 

• Who: Professional Finance Company, a Colorado-based debt collection firm, announced earlier this month that it was the victim of a data breach. 
• Why: PFC says the data breach exposed the data of more than 650 health care providers and affects more than 1.9 million patients in the United States. 
• Where: The data breach affects patients and health care providers nationwide. 

Professional Finance Company disclosed to the public earlier this month that it was the victim of a cybersecurity breach in February that exposed the data of more than 650 health care providers.

The data breach of the Colorado-based debt collection firm may be the largest to affect personal health and information in the United States this year, TechCrunch reports.

PFC says hackers behind the data breach accessed patient names, addresses, outstanding balances and other account-related information. 

Attackers were also “in some cases” able to steal Social Security numbers, dates of birth and information related to insurance and medical treatment, according to PFC.

In a separate filing to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, PFC confirmed that more than 1.9 million U.S. patients were affected by the health care data breach, TechCrunch reports. 

Delaware’s Bayhealth Medical Center and Texas’ Coleman County Medical Center, which are both connected to PFC, have since issued their own data breach notifications in the wake of the PFC data breach. 

No proof stolen data from health care breach has been ‘specifically misused,’ PFC says 

In its data breach announcement, PFC reassures patients that there is no indication that any of the personal information accessed has been “specifically misused” and that it has “rebuilt affected systems and has taken steps to bolster its network security.” 

“Data security is one of PFC’s highest priorities,” the company says. 

PFC says it will be sending letters to patients who may have been affected by the health care data breach with information and resources they can use to protect themselves if needed.  

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Treasury Department and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a joint alert to health care organizations earlier this month warning that they could be sanctioned for making ransom payments to hackers from North Korea. 

Kaiser Permanente, meanwhile, announced last month that a data breach exposed the health information of more than 69,000 of its patients. 

If your information was compromised as a result of a hospital data breach, you may qualify for a health care data breach class action lawsuit claim review.

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