Stanford Hospital Discovers Patient Financial Information Loaded On Commercial Website

From the New York Times comes news that medical information including billing codes and other financial data from Stanford Hospital turned up on a commercial website called “Student of Fortune” last year and has been there for approximately a year. Student of Fortune is a website offering to assist with homework assisgnments. The hospital has been attempting to determine just how such a privacy breach could have gone unnoticed for so long. Apparently the information does not include SSNs or patient names. Chegg, the owner of Student of Fortune, has since removed the information. The hospital has cancelled its contract with the vendor whose employee apparently originally submitted the information.