The healthcare data breach tracker maintained by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealed Monday that a recent cybersecurity incident at Vitas Healthcare affected more than 300,000 individuals. Chemed-owned Vitas Healthcare is the largest for-profit hospice chain in the United States.
Vitas Hospice Services disclosed on a dedicated data breach notice website on November 21 that it discovered an intrusion on October 24. An investigation determined the attacker gained access to some Vitas systems using a compromised vendor account. The attacker maintained access from approximately September 21 to October 27.
During that time the hacker downloaded personal information for current and former patients. This data included names addresses phone numbers dates of birth driver’s license numbers SSNs medical information insurance information and contact information for next of kin. The HHS healthcare data breach tracker shows the incident impacted 319,177 individuals. It remains unclear if Vitas was targeted in a ransomware attack. No known ransomware group has claimed responsibility for an attack on the organization. While this breach is significant, it is common for healthcare data breaches to affect hundreds of thousands or even millions of people.
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