HHS OCR breach portal (HIPAA breaches affecting 500 or more individuals) Primary notice
Posted on the HHS OCR breach portal (HIPAA breaches affecting 500 or more individuals) with a submission date of Jan. 28, 2015.
- Organization as reported
- Diana S. Guth DBA Home Respiratory Care, CA
- Entity type as reported
- Healthcare Provider
- Category as reported
Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
- Location of information as reported
- Submission date
- Jan. 28, 2015
- Observed by BreachRecords
- 2026-10-18 16:15 UTC (revision 14894, row:6033)
- Archived copy
- Held in the private archive (provenance)
The covered entity (CE), Home Respiratory Care, reported a breach of 1,285 individuals’ electronic protected health information (ePHI), as a result of a workforce member emailing holiday cards and newsletters to its patients in a group email without masking the recipients' addresses. This action, or lack thereof, left every recipient's email address exposed, which may have included names, as well as an implicit indication that the individual had received respiratory treatment. The CE provided OCR with evidence that it responded to the security incident and undertook steps to prevent the risk of future security incidents by implementing new mail merge safeguards; implementing new, technical safeguards; sanctioning the workforce members involved; and re-training the entire workforce. OCR provided technical assistance regarding the HIPAA Security Rule.