North Kansas City Hospital (“NKCH”) is an acute healthcare facility in Missouri with 451 licensed beds and 550 physicians representing 49 medical specialties. Through NKCH’s subsidiary, Meritas Health Corporation (“Meritas”), NKCH “offers the largest network of physician practices in the Northland, with more than 280 primary and specialty care doctors and advanced practice providers in 35 convenient locations, including an express care clinic in the 64th Street Hy-Vee store.”[1]
Perry Johnson & Associates, Inc. (“PJ&A”) provided transcription and dictation services to NKCH and Meritas. On January 4, 2024, PJ&A began notifying former patients of NKCH and Meritas of a significant security incident that compromised patients’ personal information. NKCH has reported that “the protected health information of 502,438 individuals was compromised between March 27, 2023, and May 2, 2023, when hackers had access to PJ&A’s systems.”[2]
Information obtained by the cybercriminals included patients’: name, date of birth, gender, phone number, address, health insurance information, and pieces of clinical information.[3] Given the start date of the PJ&A data breach, patients’ personal information may have been posted on the Dark Web as early as March of 2023.
Have you ever been a patient at North Kansas City Hospital or a Meritas Health Corporation facility? Have you received a “Notice of Data Event” letter from PJ&A? Have you experienced warning signs of identity theft, such as fraudulent bank-account charges or unauthorized credit inquiries?
Bell Law, LLC, will provide a free consultation and analysis of your situation. If you’re a victim of the North Kansas City Hospital & Meritas Health Corporation data breach and you have questions about your situation, you may call our office at (816-886-8206) or contact one of our data breach attorneys listed below.
Bryce B. Bell [email protected]
Jenilee V. Zentrich [email protected]
T. Grant Honnold [email protected]
[1] Linked-In; North Kansas City Hospital; https://www.linkedin.com/company/north-kansas-city-hospital/; Last Accessed January 12, 2024.
[2] Alder, Steve; The HIPAA Journal; PJ&A Data Breach Total Grows as Kansas City Hospital Confirm 502K-Record Breach; https://www.hipaajournal.com/pja-data-breach/; January 5, 2024.
[3] North Kansas City Hospital, Meritas Health; PJA DATA EVENT; https://www.nkch.org/pja-data-event/; January 3, 2024.
