Kaiser Permanente said Tuesday a list containing the names of 176 patients, their medical numbers, and prescribed medications was somehow placed in a pharmacy bag and given to another Kaiser Permanente patient who was picking up a refill.
It happened Monday at the Kaiser Permanente on Zion Avenue.
“I wasn’t expecting that because I usually just get my meds and go home,” said La Mesa resident Kalen Letman. “They put something on the paper they weren’t supposed to.”
Letman alerted 10News to the potential HIPAA violation.
“I’m like, this is not right,” he said. “They’re not supposed to do that.”
10News did not take the papers from Letman but showed video of the papers to Kaiser’s Senior Communications Specialist. She later sent 10News the following statement.
Kaiser Permanente is committed to protecting the privacy of our members' and patients' information. On August 2, 2016, we learned that an internal document containing the names, medical record numbers, and a list of certain medications of 176 San Diego members was discovered by another Kaiser Permanente member in a pharmacy bag containing his prescriptions. The internal document did not include any other member information such as Social Security numbers or other financial information. As soon as we were alerted, our teams began an immediate investigation. As part of the ongoing investigation, we will reach out directly to each of the 189 members affected by this incident. Our commitment is to discover how and why this incident occurred, so that we may prevent it from happening in the future.
