Health IT Vendor’s Lost Laptop Impacts 116,000 Patients

Alere Home Monitoring, a Waltham, Mass.-based provider of patient home monitoring services, recently disclosed that a company-owned laptop containing protected health information including Social Security numbers and diagnosis codes, was recently stolen from a locked vehicle that belonged to one of the firm’s employees.  The company says it has notified approximately 116,000 individuals of the incident.

The company didn’t disclose what providers’ patients were on the computer and said it does not believe the information on the stolen computer has actually been accessed or inappropriately used. The company also didn’t say whether or not the laptop was encrypted. It did say all devices will be encrypted in the future. The company is also offering a year of free credit monitoring for those affected.

"Alere Home Monitoring apologizes to those affected for any concern, inconvenience, or risk that this incident may cause," Alere Home Monitoring President, Jon Russell, said in a statement.  "We regret that this incident occurred and are taking appropriate steps to protect individuals who may have been affected by this breach and to limit or prevent such breaches in the future."