Patient information improperly released by company with 2 Tri-Cities clinics

The private information of patients at two Tri-Cities urgent care centers has been inappropriately disclosed.

HealthFirst Urgent Care, with centers in Richland and Pasco, announced a data breach on Tuesday, May 28.

On April 10 the company became aware that some HealthFirst patient information had been disclosed to some contractors without the appropriate safeguards in place.

A worker with HealthFirst used contractors from Oct. 1, 2023, to April 26, 2024, to help with some billing and audit services without confidentiality agreements and without HealthFirst’s knowledge, the company said.

The employee and contractors are no longer providing HealthFirst services.

The information disclosed includes patient names, codes for the services or diagnoses they received, and billing, collection and payment amount information.

However, the information did not include Social Security numbers, detailed clinical information, credit card or banking information, or contact information.

“At this time there is no evidence that the contractors have misused or further disclosed the information received,” HealthFirst said.

HealthFirst will be sending notices to patients for which it has valid mailing addresses.

The company is notifying government agencies and reviewing and updating, as needed, its privacy and security procedures.

This story was originally published May 29, 2024 at 5:00 AM.