Customers concerned after CVS prescription info mix-up
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/customers-concerned-after-cvs-prescription-info-mi/ngqnH/
From the article:
Channel 2 started asking questions after a major pharmacy chain sent prescription information for hundreds of customers to the wrong addresses. Now they are concerned for their privacy.
According to a statement Channel 2’s Amy Napier Viteri got from CVS Caremark, the mistake affected around 350 customers
One woman in Georgia said she got a mailer with someone else’s name and a full list of their prescription medications.
The mailing went out to some CVS Caremark customers offering a switch to a 90-day prescription supply. The problem is that hundreds of the mailings went out to the wrong addresses.
“It definitely makes your trust a little shaky now when it comes to your system. It’s like, how did you mess up this? how did this get mixed up?” said customer Sarai Young
Everyone understands that a business has to show a profit… everyone understands that in order to do this, a business must run efficiently and have the cheapest card machine to save on costs. One could call this the “speed of business”…but.. are we suppose understand that when a business tries to run so fast or does it with too few or too poorly trained employees… that the customers/patients/members that the business serves gets harmed ? In this particular incident, a Federal law – HIPAA – law was violated along with a few hundred people’s personal health information compromised.
It must be remembered that this same entity operates some 7 K pharmacies… The question has to be asked, is this same business philosophy being applied to how their Rx depts are being operating, but if errors or missteps happen in that environment… more than just a person’s health information can be harmed ?
Unlike, the credit card information that was compromised earlier this year by “hackers”
In a statement, a spokesperson said: CVS Caremark is in the process of notifying the affected members that due to a programming error, letters intended for fewer than 350 plan members were sent to incorrect addresses.
This violation of HIPAA was done – according to the above statement – INTERNALLY by CAREMARK’S own employees because – it appears – that they did not properly test the programming before sending out this mailing.
Filed under: General Problems
I don’t think this is anything new to CVS…In June of 2012 my husband Joe Zorek received in the mail his auth for Ampyra (MS). He opened the second letter from CVS and it was another person auth for HIV medication. It was addressed to the correct person, however with our address in Harrisburg Pa…this patient was from Texas. Joe went over the letter again and reached for the phone and immediately called the patients doctor to explain what happened and asked them to call the patient so they could get their drug. This letter contained all that info And more. We contacted many federal agencies and received letters stating this matter will be investigated…this time I see a fine coming!!! Steve if you still have copies, please feel free to post…our address is public and Joe’s MS is no secret!