Health Insurance Data Mistakenly Put Online

La Plata Patients Affected by Court Error Patients at a La Plata medical office are among about 250 people whose health insurance information was erroneously made public online by the U.S. District Court of Maryland.
The information was included in public documents through the federal court system's searchable online database, said a lawyer involved in the case. The breach was first reported Sunday by the Washington Examiner. The information has since been blocked from public view.
Some of the Washington area residents affected are patients at the Crain Highway medical offices where Abdul Fadul practices. Fadul, who is listed as an internist and cardiologist, and one of his partners, Ali Al-Attar, are under federal investigation on suspicion of health insurance fraud, according to court documents. Al-Attar, an internist, does not appear to practice in La Plata. Both doctors operate offices in Falls Church and Oxon Hill.
Al-Attar's attorney, Bruce Marcus, said that names, birthdays and health-care policy numbers were listed online for about 250 people. Social Security numbers were listed for about 50. Marcus said he did not know how many of those affected are patients at the La Plata clinic. Calls to the clinic and to Fadul's attorney, Paul Kemp, were not returned.
"The disclosure was done through government action, so they will have to do whatever is necessary to ensure that there is no untoward use of this private information," Marcus said. Calls to the court were not returned.
Federal officials raided the doctors' offices this month after an employee alerted them to suspicious billing methods. The doctors are accused of billing health insurance companies for more than $2 million worth of services they did not provide, according to court documents.
Corporations, universities and health providers have mistakenly posted private information online, exposing people to the risk of identity theft, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington-based research group. But Lillie Coney, the center's associate director, said she had never heard of a similar incident involving medical information obtained through online court documents.
"When a court posts medical information, it punishes patients who had nothing to do with the prosecution or the crime allegedly committed in first place," Coney said.
Such information is especially sensitive, she said, because a privacy breach could reveal a patient's medical conditions. The center has pushed for tighter restrictions regarding publicly accessible online court records, especially as it relates to people incidental to an investigation.
"It wouldn't have been enough just to black out the names, because patients can be identified by much more than just their name and Social Security number," Coney said. "And in a small community, there's an even greater ability to identify innocent people."