SAN GABRIEL VALLEY, Calif. — Police have accused a man of stealing two laptops from an administration building of AHMC Healthcare, compromising 729,000 patient files.
The laptops, stolen from the building on Oct. 12, contain information on patients treated at Garfield Medical Center, Monterey Park Hospital, Greater El Monte Community Hospital, Whittier Hospital Medical Center, San Gabriel Valley Medical Center and Anaheim Regional Medical Center. Police are currently looking for 36-year-old Christopher Brown, also known as Allen Marcous, in connection with the thefts, LATimes.com reports.
Brown allegedly lifted the password-protected laptops from a heavily monitored sixth-floor office. The computers contained sensitive data, including patients’ names, insurance identification numbers, diagnosis/procedure codes and payment records. Some files also contained Social Security numbers of Medicare patients.
The data breach is the 11th largest in the nation. It is unclear whether the information was accessed or used; however, AHMC Healthcare officials have already recruited an auditing firm to perform a security risk assessment. Additionally, administrators have implemented a new police to encrypt all laptops.
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