15,982 South Texas Dermatopathology Patients Contacted in Relation to AMCA Data Breach

Posted By Maria Perez on Oct 23, 2019 |

South Texas Dermatopathology is the most recent victim of the data breach at American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) to make the breach known to the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and alert impacted patients. The breach was published on the OCR breach portal on October 7, 2019 and indicates 15,982 patients have been impacted.

AMCA was a business associate of the San Antonio, TX-located medical testing laboratory and provided billings and collection services. South Texas Dermatopathology was made aware of the security breach at AMCA in May 2019 and was informed that some of its patients’ information was potentially compromised due to the hacking of AMCA systems.

An unauthorized person first obtained access to AMCA systems on August 1, 2018. Access was still possible up to March 30, 2019 when the breach was detected and its systems were safeguarded. During that time, the unauthorized person had access to parts of AMCA systems that included data such as names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, balance information, dates of service, credit card or banking information and treatment provider data.

After discovering the breach, South Texas Dermatopathology stopped sending patient data to AMCA and ended its business relationship with the firm. Another vendor is now supplied billings and collection services.  All patients affected by the breach have now been alerted.

The complete list of healthcare groups impacted by the AMCA breach is listed below. The number of patients impacted has been removed from the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights’ breach portal.