Blood testing giant Quest Diagnostics lost 12,000,000 patients' personal, financial and medical data

boing
8

Okay, I have now read the actual press release from Quest. What really happened is this:

  1. Quest contracts with Optum360 (“Our solutions provide a modern healthcare revenue cycle”, whatever the fuck that means)
  2. Optum360 contracts with American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) (“a billing collections service provider”)
  3. ACMA fucks up.
  4. ACMA notifies Optum360
  5. Optum360 notifies Quest
  6. Quest notifies securities regulators and issues a press release.

Fortunately/Unfortunately, I don’t think ACMA had any data that would render them liable under HIPAA, any more than, say, a credit card company would if you used a credit card to pay at the doctor’s office.

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