Details Emerge On Number Of Patients Impacted By Yale Data Breach

NEW HAVEN, CT — The data security breach at the Yale New Haven Health System, which was announced earlier this month, has affected more than 5.5 million patients

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ breach portal shows 5,556,702 patients were impacted.

The Yale health system includes five hospitals – Bridgeport, Greenwich, Lawrence + Memorial, Westerly and Yale New Haven hospitals, several specialty networks and Northeast Medical Group, a non-profit medical foundation with several hundred community-based and hospital-employed physicians.

Dana Marnane, a spokesperson for the health system, declined to comment Friday beyond the system’s statement provided on April 11.

Multiple patients have filed lawsuits against the health system this month over the data breach.

The system noticed unusual activity affecting its IT systems on March 8.

“We immediately took steps to contain the incident and began an investigation with support from external cybersecurity experts, and we also reported the incident to law enforcement,” the health system said, in a press release. “At no point did the incident impact our ability to provide patient care.”

According to the health system, an unauthorized third-party gained access to its network and obtained copies of some data.

The information obtained varies by patient, according to Yale officials, but may include demographics (such as name, date of birth, address, telephone number, email address, race or ethnicity), Social Security number, patient type, and/or medical record number.

The health system’s medical record system was not accessed, Yale officials said. No financial accounts, payment or employee information were impacted, according to the health system.

The system indicated it is mailing letters to impacted patients. It is offering complimentary credit monitoring and identity protection services to individuals whose Social Security number was involved in the breach.

Patients are advised to review their statements from healthcare providers and report any inaccuracies.

“We take our responsibility to safeguard patient information incredibly seriously, and we regret any concern this incident may have caused,” the health system said. “We are continuously updating and enhancing our systems to protect the data we maintain and to help prevent events such as this from occurring in the future.”

For more information, visit ynhhs.org or call 1-855-549-2678 weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, excluding major U.S. holidays.