AMCA Data Breach Impacts Almost 25M To Date

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The number of victims of the American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) data breach has gone up to about 25 million with one more healthcare organization announcing that it was impacted by the breach.

Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories (WDL) runs 13 medical testing facilities in the area of Milwaukee. Around 114,985 of its patients were notified about the compromise of some of their protected health information (PHI) because of the AMCA data breach. WDL received information from AMCA on June 3, 2019 that certain patients’ information were compromised due to the hacking of its web payment portal. The hacker accessed the payment portal on August 1, 2018 but AMCA detected the breach only on March 30, 2019 and secured the site.

The exposed information from the AMCA systems included the patients’ names, birth dates, dates of service, names of laboratory or healthcare service providers, referring doctor’s name, the amount owed to WDL, and other health data associated to the services that WDL provided. There were no Social Security numbers or laboratory test results compromised. The financial data (credit card number/bank account details) of some persons were compromised. AMCA directly notified those persons. The breach only affected the patients with outstanding bills whose information were provided to AMCA for collection.

Just like the other clients of AMCA affected by the breach, WDL stopped its business contract with AMCA and took action in ensuring the retrieval and security of all patient information.

WDL is the 23rd healthcare company to confirm the impact of the AMCA data breach on its patients. Presently, affected healthcare organizations have reported that there are about 24,911,500 persons impacted by the breach.

James Keogh

James Keogh has been writing about the healthcare sector in the United States for several years and is currently the editor of HIPAAnswers. He has a particular interest in HIPAA and the intersection of healthcare privacy and information technology. He has developed specialized knowledge in HIPAA-related issues, including compliance, patient privacy, and data breaches. You can follow James on Twitter https://x.com/JamesKeoghHIPAA and contact James on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-keogh-89023681 or email directly at [email protected]