Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island

A covered entity (CE) donated a file cabinet containing the protected health information (PHI) of 12,000 individuals before cleaning it out. The PHI included members' names, addresses, telephone numbers, social security numbers, and Medicare identification numbers. The covered entity (CE) provided breach notification to HHS, the affected individuals, and media, and offered all affected individuals free credit monitoring for a period of one year. Following the breach, the CE sanctioned the employees involved in the incident and held a mandatory training regarding the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule for all departments involved in the breach. The CE also revised the policy for office moves. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective action listed above. \ \