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 March 31, 2017.
- Organization as reported
- Women's Care of Somerset, KY
- Entity type as reported
- Healthcare Provider
- Category as reported
Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
- Location of information as reported
- Submission date
- March 31, 2017
- Observed by BreachRecords
- 2026-10-18 16:15 UTC (revision 14229, row:5368)
- Archived copy
- Held in the private archive (provenance)
On February 3, 2017, Women’s Care of Somerset, the covered entity (CE), sent a promotional email to patients without blind copying the recipients, disclosing the email addresses of 1,805 individuals. The CE investigated the incident and determined the email was sent by an office manager using an unauthorized email method. Following the breach the CE sanctioned the office manager, deleted the emails, and disabled the email account that was used to send them. The CE also revised its electronic mail use policy, required staff to review the revised policy, and retrained staff on proper email use. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, the affected individuals, the media, and posted substitute notice on the CE’s website. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.