Breach Brief – American Medical Collection Agency

Published On June 6, 2019 | By Tom Huskerson | Breach Briefs

Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, medical testing companies, have confirmed a major data breach. Reports are that the breach may have been the fault of third-party billing company American Medical Collection Agency. As many as 12 million Quest patients and another 8 million LabCorp patients arre affected.

As one of the largest medical collection agencies AMCA serves clinical laboratories, hospitals and physician groups.

According to LabCorp, AMCA’s affected system contained information provided by LabCorp that includes clients’ names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, dates of service, healthcare providers and account balance information.

LabCorp noted that no patient lab test information, Social Security numbers or insurance identification was exposed. AMCA informed LabCorp that it is notifying some 200,000 LabCorp consumers whose credit card or bank account information may have been compremised.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission the breach resulted from malicious activity on the payment pages of American Medical Collection Agency. The breach resulted in the theft of credit card numbers, medical and personal data by an “unauthorized user.”

According to Quest the breach dates back nearly a year to August 1, 2018 through March 30, 2019. Quest, stated that it has “not been able to verify the accuracy of the information” from the AMCA.

Quest has ceased sending collection requests to the vendor during the investigation and has hired outside security experts to determine the extent of the damage. The company also said that it “has insurance coverage in place for certain potential liabilities and costs relating to the incident; this insurance is limited in amount and subject to a deductible.”

Jennifer Kain, a spokesperson for AMCA, said in a statement, provided by a crisis communications firm, that it was “investigating” the breach.

This is second data breach to hit Quest in three years. A 2016 breach the lost the data of 34,000 patients stolen by hackers.

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About The Author

Tom Huskerson Bio Born in Richmond Virginia Tom Huskerson is a military veteran who settled in California after his discharge. Tom attended Santa Barbara City College where he began his writing career as a campus reporter. He worked as an intern news reporter for the Santa Barbara News-Press writing feature stories before moving on to San Francisco. At San Francisco State University Tom studied broadcast communications and began to focus on the Internet. He completed his graduate thesis on Internet advertising. Tom was the first student to ever focus on the Internet as a graduate student at San Francisco State University. After graduation he went to work for Zona Research in California’s Silicone Valley. As a research associate Tom supported senior analyst writing on the latest developments in the Internet industry. During the dot com boom Tom worked for several web businesses as a market researcher and analyst. As a writer and researcher Tom has authored various technical works including a training program for Charles Schwab security. Other projects included professional presentations on workplace violence and hiring security contractors. Tom has also written both fiction and non-fiction works and blogging for a travel website. He has published two books of short stories and completed two novels. Tom is the owner of Scribe of Life Literature and EbonyCandle.com. Tom is not the chief editor for the OnTechStreet. com. A news and information blog that focuses on tech news for African-Americans. The blog is the result of his desire to inform the African American community of the dangers and benefits of the cyber age. In his blog Tom reports on information security, new and analysis, scams and hoaxes, legal happenings and various topics that arise from the age of information. Tom believes that technology is a necessary tool for black people and they should know what is happening. Tom writes believing that techno speak is for the professional and that valuable information can be communicated using plain language. As a result he has embraced the motto, Less Tech, More Knowledge.

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