10 largest data breaches of 2019

Mackenzie Garrity -

Numerous privacy incidents at hospitals, IT suppliers and other healthcare organizations captured public attention throughout 2019.

While some security incidents only affected only a few hundred patients, others were said to have affected millions.

Here are the 10 largest healthcare privacy incidents reported by Becker's Hospital Review thus far in 2019:

Editor's note: Incidents are presented in order of the number of patients or organizations affected.

1. Quest Diagnostics notified 11.9 million patients of a data breach that happened at one of its billing collections vendors.

2. Medical testing company Laboratory Corp. of America learned 7.7 million of its patients may have had their data exposed in the same vendor breach as Quest Diagnostics.

3. Lab testing company Clinical Pathology Laboratories began notifying 2.2 million patients July 5 that their personal health information may have been exposed in a vendor data breach.

4. Inmediata Health Group, a healthcare clearinghouse company, notified its customers of a data breach that may have exposed the personal information of more than 1.5 million people.

5. Nine employees within Oregon's Department of Human Services opened a phishing email on Jan. 8 that may have exposed around 645,000 people.

6. Tampa-based Women's Care Florida alerted all current and former patients — 528,188 people — that their medical or personal information may have been exposed due to an April 29 cybersecurity incident.

7. The Oregon Department of Human Services reported an email phishing attack on 2 million agency emails that may have exposed the medical information of more than 350,000 people.

8. A cyberattack last July on Macon, Ga.-based Navicent Health's employee email account system may have affected 278,016 patients' personal information.

9. Medical device and software developer Zoll notified 277,319 patients in March of a security incident that put their personal and medical information at risk from Nov. 8 to Dec. 28, 2018.

10. Health Alliance Plan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan alerted nearly 270,000 members combined in March that their personal information may have been compromised after a data breach at the payers' mailing service vendor in September 2018.

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