Goldthwait Associates Data Breach (2010)

The former owners of a medical billing practice that dumped sensitive health _records at the Georgetown Transfer Station have agreed, along with doctors involved, to pay $140,000 in a settlement with the Massachusetts attorney generals office. A Globe photographer _noticed the pile of paper _records when he was tossing out his own trash in July 2010. The pile consisted of _records for more than 67,000 people, including names, _addresses, Social_ Security numbers, pathology reports for people tested for various kinds of cancer, and other test _results. The photographer collected some of the documents, and the Globe contacted the hospitals that had contracted with the pathologists who had shared information with the billing company. State and federal laws _require health records to be disposed of in ways that _destroy personal information, such as by shredding or incineration. Personal health information must be safeguarded as it passes from patients to doctors to medical billers and other third-party contractors, _Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a press release. We believe this data breach put thousands of patients at risk, she added, and it is the obligation of all parties involved to ensure that sensitive information is disposed of properly to prevent this from happening again.