North Kansas City, Missouri (January 3, 2024) – North Kansas City Hospital ("NKCH") is providing notice of an incident that was reported to us by a third-party vendor involving potential unauthorized access to personal information of patients.
On July 21, 2023, Perry Johnson & Associates, Inc. ("PJA"), an outside vendor used by NKCH and its subsidiary Meritas Health Corporation ("Meritas") for transcription services, informed NKCH it discovered a potential data security incident involving an unauthorized actor gaining access to PJA systems and certain data stored on them. Upon learning this, PJA launched an investigation to determine the nature and scope of the incident. The investigation, which was conducted with the assistance of third-party forensic specialists, determined that there was unauthorized access to PJA's systems between March 27, 2023 and May 2, 2023. PJA undertook a comprehensive review of the data at risk to assess if any sensitive information could be affected and to whom it related. After receiving the results of PJA's review, NKCH continued working with PJA through November 7, 2023 to confirm the scope of affected individuals and the data relating to those individuals.
There was no impact to the security of NKCH's and Meritas' own systems.
PJA determined the type of information potentially impacted by their incident included patients' demographic information (for example: name, date of birth, gender, phone number and address), health insurance information, and pieces of clinical information. Patients' Social Security Numbers have not been impacted by this incident.
Although NKCH is unaware of any actual or attempted misuse of any information, it is providing notice of this incident out of an abundance of caution. NKCH encourages individuals with questions about this incident to visit NKCH's website at www.nkch.org/PJAdataevent for more information or call 1-888-928-1264 available Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Central Time.
NKCH encourages potentially impacted individuals to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud, to review account statements, and to monitor their credit reports for suspicious activity. Individuals may contact the three major credit reporting agencies for advice on how to obtain free credit reports and how to place fraud alerts and security freezes on credit files. The relevant contact information is below:
Equifax P.O. Box 105788 Atlanta, GA 30348 1-800-685-111 www.equifax.com | Experian P.O. Box 9554 Allen, TX 75013 1-888-397-3742 www.experian.com | TransUnion P.O. Box 160 Woodlyn, PA 19094 1-888-909-8872 www.transunion.com |
Potentially impacted individuals may also find information regarding identity theft, fraud alerts, security freezes and the steps they may take to protect their information by contacting the credit bureaus, the Federal Trade Commission or their state Attorney General. The Federal Trade Commission can be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580; www.identitytheft.gov; 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); and TTY: 1-866-653-4261.
Media Contact: Vince Regan, 267-930-4842
/PRNewswire -- Jan. 3, 2024/
SOURCE North Kansas City Hospital
