Identity theft case hits patients at Charlotte medical office, documents say
%5B1%5D.JPG "A Charlotte medical office is notifying its patients their private information, including social security numbers, may have been stolen and given to fraud suspects. The employee involved has been fired, the medical office said.")
An employee at a Charlotte medical office shared about 100 patients' information with identity theft suspects, according to a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police search warrant.
Police found names, birth dates and Social Security numbers on the employee's phone during a January visit to Carolina Digestive Health Associates' University Endoscopy Center, where she worked.
The Observer is not naming the employee because she hasn't been charged with a crime. She was fired from her job, according to a statement from Carolina Digestive Health Associates.
CMPD detectives started investigating the employee because they learned she had texted Damonte Withers, who was indicted on federal fraud charges alongside several other people in Charlotte in December. On another suspect's phone, they found screenshots that looked like they were from a doctor's office.
An IT worker at Carolina Digestive Health told police the information came from its system, according to the search warrant.
When the detectives walked into the endoscopy center on Jan. 11, they found the employee at the front desk. She agreed to talk to them and gave them her iPhone X in a pink glitter case, according to the search warrant.
"(The employee) admitted that most of the information she shared was from the office where she worked," the search warrant said.
She told detectives she was dating one member of the group of fraud suspects.
Carolina Digestive Health is in the process of sending letters to notify patients whose information may have been shared, according to a statement Tuesday.
The statement said the medical office learned about the incident on Jan. 10, the day before detectives visited the employee at the office, but CMPD asked them to delay notifying patients due to the ongoing investigation.
Carolina Digestive Health is cooperating with police and also conducted an internal investigation, the statement said.
The office is making changes to prevent a similar incident by restricting employee access to patient information and monitoring that access more closely.
The office is also offering free identity protection services to potentially impacted individuals, the statement said.
Carolina Digestive Health opened a call center for affected patients on Wednesday. It's available during business hours at 888-284-9087.
This story was originally published April 19, 2018 at 11:44 AM with the headline "Identity theft case hits patients at Charlotte medical office, documents say."