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 July 13, 2017.
- Organization as reported
- Professional Counseling & Medical Associates, TN
- Entity type as reported
- Healthcare Provider
- Category as reported
Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of information as reported
- Electronic Medical Record
- Submission date
- July 13, 2017
- Observed by BreachRecords
- 2026-10-18 16:15 UTC (revision 14126, row:5265)
- Archived copy
- Held in the private archive (provenance)
The covered entity (CE), Professional Counseling & Medical Associates, discovered that a former contractor workforce member accessed the CE’s electronic health records system after her employment ended on May 12, 2017. The former contractor was able to access the protected health information (PHI) of 2,605 individuals, including names, addresses, dates of birth, driver’s license numbers, patient ID numbers, claims information, diagnoses, lab results, medications, and treatment information. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, the media, and on its website. Following the breach, the CE improved several of its safeguards, including changing password requirements, revising workforce termination procedures, strengthening its firewall, conducting more frequent system reviews, improving physical security, and providing additional HIPAA training to staff. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.