When you get medical treatment, the information that goes into your file is extensive and can contain a whole lot of personal information like your name, address, Social Security Number as well as your medical history. That private stuff should be kept from the prying eyes of others, which is exactly the opposite of what Illinois prosecutors say one company did when allegedly dumping medical files in the trash.

CBS 2 in Chicago says it tipped off Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office after finding thousands of medical files in a Dumpster in February, and that she’s now filed a lawsuit against a company called Filefax for allegedly violating the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act and the Personal Information Protection Act.

Medical, financial and other personal records were just dumped in the garbage, files Filefax was hired to store, maintain and eventually destroy, the lawsuit alleges.

“So they’ve completely violated the law,” Madigan says. “They completely violated peoples’ trust and we want to hold them accountable for that.”

CBS 2 reported that a Dumpster had been filled with records on multiple days in February, and that one woman filled her blue recycling can up 10 times with 1,100 pounds of medical files that she said Filefax gave her permission to take and recycle.

“It cannot simply be given to anybody who walks into their office saying that they’d like to allegedly have this to be recycled,” said Madigan, who says each mishandled medical file could result in a $50,000 fine.

The company that hired Filefax to take care of its medical records said in a statement that it had notified impacted customers, and had ending its contract with Filefax in favor of a “different company for secure storage and destruction of medical records.”

MADIGAN SUES CHICAGO AREA COMPANY FOR MEDICAL RECORD DATA BREACH [Press Release]
2 Investigators: Lisa Madigan Sues Medical Records Company After Files Found In Dumpster [CBS 2]

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