Texas ENT is committed to protecting the confidentiality and security of our patients’ information. This notice addresses a recent incident involving some of that information.
On October 19, 2021, Texas ENT learned that files containing patient information were subject to unauthorized access during a data security incident. With assistance from a third-party cybersecurity firm, we determined that unauthorized parties gained access to our computer systems and took copies of Texas ENT files between August 9, 2021 and August 15, 2021. We carefully reviewed those files and determined they contained patient names, dates of birth, medical record numbers, and procedure codes used for billing purposes. A limited number of files also contained patient Social Security numbers. Importantly, there was no unauthorized access to Texas ENT’s electronic medical records system.
We mailed letters to affected individuals on December 10, 2021. If you believe you are affected by this incident and do not receive a letter by January 10, 2022, please call 1-866-226-8214, between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., Central Time. We would like to remind our patients that it is always advisable to review the statements from healthcare providers for accuracy, and we recommend contacting your provider if you see services that were not received. For those patients whose Social Security numbers were contained within the files, we are offering complimentary identity monitoring services through Experian.
We take patient privacy very seriously and we regret any inconvenience this incident may cause our patients and their families. To help prevent something like this from happening again, we are further strengthening our existing privacy and information security program by implementing additional safeguards and technical security measures to protect and monitor our systems.
