Christus Health Care Data Breach

Hundreds, maybe thousands, of patients’ personal information is at risk of identity theft. Christus Health Care System in Houston, Texas has been a victim of theft. Data tapes containing information on recent patients who owe money to the company were stolen from the car of an associate. It affects not only Christus patients in Houston, but patients in Louisiana, Utah, Arkansas and Mexico, as well as some outside of the Christus system.

Among the information stolen were patient names, Social Security numbers, demographic information and diagnosis codes. The hospital system is not currently offering credit protection services to those who may have been affected, but encourages those involved to be proactive in watching their credit reports for suspicious activity. We think this was a mistake on their part and that all companies experiencing a data breach should offer some form of protection to the clients whose personal information they exposed to identity theft.