At least 4 million New Yorkers’ private information could be at risk of identity theft after a data breach at a medical transcription company that works with hospitals in New York, state Attorney General Letitia James said Tuesday.
The company, Nevada-based Perry Johnson & Associates, works with Northwell Health, which has hospitals and clinics across the five boroughs and Long Island, as well as Crouse Health in Syracuse. About 9 million patients nationwide are affected by the breach, according to the attorney general’s office.
Most people whose data was affected have been notified of the breach, James said.
The lapse in security potentially revealed private patient information — including Social Security numbers and insurance and clinical information included in medical transcripts — per the consumer alert.
Perry Johnson & Associates became aware of the breach in May, James’ office said. But the company said in its own advisory about the incident that it didn’t begin sending out notices to patients whose information might have been compromised until Oct. 31.
Gothamist has reached out to ask the company why it took so long to begin sending out notifications. James’ office didn’t respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon on when state officials learned about the breach.
Perry Johnson & Associates said an “unauthorized party” accessed its network between March 27 and May 2 and obtained copies of files in the system.
“We value individuals’ privacy and deeply regret any concern that this incident might cause,” the company said in its advisory. “To help prevent something like this from happening again, PJ&A continues to review its safeguards and has implemented additional technical security measures to further protect and monitor its systems.”
It said the exposed data included patients’ birthdates, medical record numbers, hospital account numbers, diagnoses and dates of service.
In some cases, the data also included Social Security numbers,…
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