Summit Community Care Clinic, Inc.

An employee impermissibly disclosed approximately 921 patients’ protected health information (PHI) when the employee sent an email message to patients and failed to place the patients’ email addresses in the blind carbon copy area of the email. The only type of PHI involved in the breach was email addresses. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media. The covered entity (CE), Summit Community Care Clinic, Inc. had a policy and procedure in place addressing security issues regarding email. In response to the incident the CE re-trained its staff on its policy and procedure, and individually counseled the responsible employee. OCR provided technical assistance regarding the CE’s obligations under the Security and Breach Notification Rules and obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.