Patient personal information found at abandoned Clinton pharmacy

[Jilly_in_VA]

CLINTON, Tenn.— The owners of a strip mall in Clinton said the personal information of pharmacy customers was apparently left unprotected when the business abruptly abandoned their rented space.

Paul and Gladys Harrell, who own a strip mall, were shocked when they opened the doors to a mail-order pharmacy group that had rented space from them. When their tenant stopped paying rent, the Anderson County couple entered the business and found thousands of prescription labels with personal information.

Paul says he doesn’t know how to handle the prescription labels left behind at Comprehensive Care Pharmacy; does he burn them or have them shredded?

“This was open, I started looking. I don’t know what is all this stuff,” said Paul as he shows WATE’s Don Dare the boxes left behind.

“You have someone’s name, address, date of birth, what they are ordering. Everything. All personal information is in here,” said Dare.

“Boxes and boxes of it,” replied Paul.

The boxes were not the only thing that was left behind, Paul also pointed out four different computers on two tables that could have been turned on if Paul hadn’t unplugged them. Federal HIPAA, privacy regulations require encrypted data to be secured.

https://www.wate.com/investigations/pharmacy-leaves-private-information-at-closed-location/
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So much for HIPAA!

[riversedge]

1. Why not just call the local police. ???

[Hoyt]

2. Report them to Office of Civil Rights which handles HIPAA complaints.

"If you believe that a HIPAA-covered entity or its business associate violated your (or someone else's) health information privacy rights or committed another violation of the Privacy, Security, or Breach Notification Rules, you may file a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR)."

https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/filing-a-complaint/index.html#:~:text=If%20you%20believe%20that%20a,for%20Civil%20Rights%20(OCR).