HHS OCR breach portal (HIPAA breaches affecting 500 or more individuals) Primary notice
Posted on the HHS Office for Civil Rights breach portal with a submission date of Dec. 4, 2020.
- Organization as reported
- Family Health Center of Worcester, MA
- Entity type as reported
- Healthcare Provider
- Category as reported
Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of information as reported
- Network Server
- Submission date
- Dec. 4, 2020
- Observed by BreachRecords
- 2026-10-18 16:15 UTC (revision 12471, row:3610)
- Archived copy
- Held in the private archive (provenance)
Family Health Center of Worcester, the covered entity (CE), reported that it was the victim of an email phishing and ransomware attack that affected the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 556 individuals. The ePHI involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, drivers’ license numbers, Social Security numbers, claims information, clinical information, treatment information, medications prescribed, and health insurance information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and provided a complimentary telephone number for questions or concerns. In its mitigation efforts, the CE implemented additional administrative, technical, and security safeguards to better protect its ePHI. The CE also retrained its workforce members on the proper methods of identifying fraudulent email communications. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted.