Nebraska hospital's name spoofed to steal patient data

Sidney (Neb.) Regional Medical Center is alerting patients that scammers are spoofing its name to steal patient information, the hospital told Becker's Oct. 25.

Four things to know:

  1. The hospital recieved reports from patients that they received suspicious phone calls. Patients were asked to take a survey for the hospital and provide their protected health information.

  2. The hospital warned hospital staff and patients about the spoofed phone calls, which means they are pretending to work for the hospital. The hospital also notified the National Research Corp., which is responsible for patient surveys, so it also could warn patients about the fraudulent calls.

  3. The hospital said it doesn't use phone calls for surveys and that patients shouldn't provide their protected health information over the phone.

  4. "Priority toward patient safety and security starts way before someone enters our organization as a patient and definitely continues long after they leave," CEO Jason Petik said. "Our team immediately expedited security measures upon learning of the threat and continues to investigate this disturbance. At this point we are not aware of anyone providing any confidential information and ask for anyone concerned to contact [the hospital's] compliance hotline."

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