John J. Pershing VA Medical Center

OCR opened an investigation of the covered entity (CE), John J. Pershing VA Medical Center, after the CE reported that its business associate (BA), Stress Laboratory, placed a box of unsecured protected health information (PHI) in an equipment storage room. The PHI included the names, social security numbers, diagnoses, and age of approximately 589 individuals. This breach incident involved a BA, and occurred prior to the September 23, 2013 compliance date. The BA employee involved in this matter separated from employment in 2012, and the BA was reorganized and has been incorporated into the CE. The CE provided breach notification to affected individuals, HHS, and the media. Substitute notification was provided through a posting on the CE's main website with a toll-free information number. The CE also offered one year of identity protection and credit monitoring services to affected individuals. As a result of this incident, the CE adopted a new policy that provides guidance to its staff regarding the handling of PHI. Additionally, the CE trained its employees on this new policy, and re-trained its employees on the Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules. Finally, OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective action listed above. \ \