Baxter Regional Home Health Facility Notifies Patients of Potential Security Incident

Baxter Regional Home Health Facility (Baxter Home Health) recently became aware of a security incident possibly affecting the personal information of some individuals who received medical services from or who worked at our facility in Cotter, Arkansas. As a precaution, we are providing this notice to make potentially affected patients and employees aware of the incident and call their attention to steps they can take to help protect themselves. We take the security of personal information very seriously, and sincerely apologize for any concern this incident may cause.

What Happened
On the morning of August 5, 2016, Baxter Home Health discovered that our facility in Cotter, Arkansas, had been broken into overnight. At the time of the break-in, certain hard-copy files were located within the facility and could potentially have been accessed by the individuals who broke in. We have no information to suggest that any records were viewed or removed from the facility, and none of our electronic records or computer systems were impacted. We are nonetheless providing notice to potentially-affected patients and employees out of an abundance of caution.

What Information Was Involved
The patient files stored at this facility may have included information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, social security numbers, government identification numbers, insurance identifiers and diagnostic information. The employee records may have included names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, licensure information, and information about previous employers.

What We Are Doing
The facility takes our responsibility to safeguard all protected health information seriously. We immediately contacted law enforcement after discovering the incident and are continuing to assist with their investigation in an attempt to identify those responsible for the break-in. We also completed an internal investigation into the incident and an assessment of our security practices. We are currently working to increase security measures at the facility, and to that end, have changed locks and will be installing cameras and alarm systems to better secure this facility.

In addition, to help protect the identities of our patients and employees, we are offering twelve months of complimentary identity protection services from an identity monitoring services company. These services help detect possible misuse of personal information and provide identity protection support focused on immediate identification and resolution of identity theft. For additional information about these services, including enrollment instructions, please call 1-844-453-5060.

What You Can Do
We want to make potentially affected individuals aware of steps they can take to guard against fraud or identify theft. We recommend that individuals carefully check their credit reports for accounts they did not open or for inquiries from creditors they did not initiate, and to call the credit agency immediately if they see something they do not understand. Any suspicious activity on a credit report should be reported to the local police or sheriffand#39;s office. Individuals should file a police report for identity theft and get a copy of it, since it may be necessary to give copies of the police report to creditors to clear up fraudulent records.

We also recommend that our patients regularly review the explanation of benefits (EOB) statements that they receive from their health insurers or health plans. If they identify services listed on the EOB that were not received, they should immediately contact the insurer or health plan.

As an additional precaution, we are providing information and resources to help our patients and employees protect their identities. This includes an Information About Identity Theft reference guide, available here, which describes additional steps individuals may take to help protect themselves, including recommendations from the Federal Trade Commission regarding identity theft protection.

Again, Baxter Regional Home Health Facility recognizes the importance of protecting personal information. We deeply regret any concern this incident may present to our patients or employees.

For More Information
For more information about this incident and ways our patients or employees can protect themselves, contact us toll-free at 1-844-453-5060 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday. Again, we regret any concern this incident may cause.

Baxter Regional Home Health Facility Notifies Patients of Potential Security Incident

Information about Identity Theft Protection