On July 7, 2023, Precision Anesthesia Billing, LLC (“PAB”) filed a notice of data breach with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights after discovering that an unauthorized party was able to access confidential patient information provided to the company. Recently, Precision Anesthesia Billing began sending out data breach notification letters to all individuals whose information was affected by the recent data security incident. PAB does not appear to have publicly released a data breach letter at the time of this article’s publishing. However, a practice group affected by the breach posted a notice informing patients of a data breach that appears to refer to the same incident. Based on this notice, it appears that the PAB breach affected patients’ names, Social Security numbers, demographic information, protected health information and health insurance information.

If you received a data breach notification from Precision Anesthesia Billing, LLC, it is essential you understand what is at risk and what you can do about it. A data breach lawyer can help you learn more about how to protect yourself from becoming a victim of fraud or identity theft as well as discuss your legal options following the Precision Anesthesia Billing data breach. For more information, please see our recent piece on the topic here.

What Caused the Precision Anesthesia Billing Breach?

The Precision Anesthesia Billing data breach was only recently announced, and more information is expected in the near future. PAB’s filing with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights only provides limited information about the breach. According to this source, the incident involved a Hacking/IT Incident that targeted one of PAB’s network servers. Evidently, the breach affected an estimated 209,200 individuals.

However, on July 13, 2023, Athens Anesthesia Associates, which contracts certain services from PAB, posted a notice on its website describing a breach that occurred at Precision Anesthesia Billing, LLC. While it can’t be confirmed, it appears that the notice is referring to the same incident. If so, sometime before May 11, 2023, PAB identified a potential data breach. In response, PAB secured its network, notified law enforcement, and then worked with third-party data security specialists to investigate the incident.

The PAB investigation determined that unauthorized actors likely accessed and removed certain files on PAB’s network between May 4, 2023 and May 7, 2023. It was later determined that some of these files contained confidential patient information.

After learning that sensitive patient data was accessible to an unauthorized party, Precision Anesthesia Billing reviewed the compromised files to determine what information was leaked and which consumers were impacted. While the breached information varies depending on the individual, it may include your name, Social Security number, demographic information, protected health information and health insurance information.

On July 7, 2023, Precision Anesthesia Billing filed notice of the breach with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights. Typically, companies will send out data breach letters around this time. These letters should provide victims with a list of what information belonging to them was compromised.