The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services has fined Samaritan Health Services, Inc., for violating Oregon law by discarding business records with patient names and Social Security numbers.
Samaritan operates a nonprofit network of hospitals, physician clinics, health plans, and senior care facilities in Albany, Corvallis, Lebanon, Lincoln City, Newport, and Sweet Home.
In July, a patient at the Samaritan Family Medicine Clinic in Corvallis found approximately 1,222 patient files had been discarded into an unlocked recycling container. Twenty of the discarded files contained patient names and unredacted Social Security numbers. Oregon law prohibits the public posting or displaying of consumer names and Social Security numbers.
As part of the final order, the agency assessed Samaritan a civil penalty of $5,000, but reduced penalty to $1,000 as long as Samaritan complies with the Oregon law for the next five years.
“A Social Security number can be a very useful tool for an identity thief,” said David Tatman, administrator of the agency’s Division of Finance and Corporate Securities (DFCS), which enforces the Oregon Consumer Identity Theft Protection Act. “Businesses must be aware of the consequences of failing to safeguard their confidential records, and that includes the secure destruction of those records.”
For more information about the Oregon Consumer Identity Theft Protection Act, go to the division website at http://www.cbs.state.or.us/external/dfcs/id_theft.html.
To read the enforcement order in this case, visit http://www.cbs.state.or.us/external/dfcs/securities/enf/orders/ID-13-0570.pdf.
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The Division of Finance and Corporate Securities helps to ensure that a wide range of financial products and services are available to Oregonians and protects consumers from financial fraud and abuse.
The Department of Consumer and Business Services is Oregon’s largest business regulatory and consumer protection agency. For more information, visitwww.dcbs.oregon.gov.
Samaritan Health Services discarded records with confidential information
November 4, 2013
