An ongoing legal dispute between the Texas Health and Human Services
Commission and its former contractor, Xerox, has led the state agency to
report to federal authorities that the business associate was
responsible for a data breach affecting 2 million individuals.
The dispute, which arose when the state ended its contract with
Xerox, serves as an important reminder of the importance of preparing
for the ending of relationships between covered entities and BAs by
including specific details about data return or destruction in business
associate agreements.
Despite the ongoing nature of the
legal battle, the breach already has been added to the Department of
Health and Human Services' "wall of shame"
tally, which tracks breaches affecting 500 or more individuals since
September 2009, when the HIPAA breach notification rule kicked in. The
tally now includes 1,167 incidents affecting a total of nearly 41.3
million individuals. Business associates have been involved in approximately 25 percent of those incidents.
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