Sonora, Ca — Computers stolen in the Los Angeles area late last year may have contained the billing information from some patients of Tuolumne General Hospital.
The computers belonged to PHNS, a company that manages and processes insurance payments for hospitals. In October, one desktop computer and four laptops were stolen from their office in Cerritos.
Company Spokesperson Larry Schunder says that several hundred Tuolumne General Hospital patients were sent letters saying that they may want to consider taking extra security measures in the near future. PHNS suggested in the letter that those affected look at options such as the placement of a fraud alert on their accounts or a security freeze on their credit files. The company has offered to provide free credit monitoring to the patients through Equifax Personal Solutions.
“Two of the laptops were recovered by law enforcement,” adds Schunder. “We were able to forensically interrogate those, and determined that neither of those laptops had their information accessed. We were also able to determine that there was actually no consumer information on those laptops.”
PHNS believes that the thieves likely took the computers for the hardware rather than the information.
Schunder says TGH patients who have received a letter and have questions can contact PHNS Inc. at 1-888-278-5686.
Written by BJ Hansen
This post was last modified on 01/31/2009 1:37 pm