On December 14, 2022, Avem Health Partners reported a data breach with several state attorney general offices after the company learned of a cybersecurity incident at 365 Data Centers, a vendor used by one of Avem’s service providers. According to Avem, the breach resulted in certain consumers’ names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, health insurance information, and diagnosis and treatment information being compromised. Recently, Avem sent out data breach letters to all affected parties, informing them of the incident and what they can do to protect themselves from identity theft and other frauds.

If you receive a data breach letter from Avem Health Partners or 365 Data Centers, it means that your confidential and personal information is no longer secure. As a result, you are at a much higher risk of falling victim to identity theft. Of course, because this is a third-party data breach, you may not have heard of Avem Health Partners or 365 Data Centers. This is because both companies received your information from your healthcare provider in conjunction with the services each company was contracted to perform. However, as we’ve discussed in previous posts, this does not change the fact that 365 Data Centers had a duty to protect your information. Whether the company was negligent leading up to the breach remains to be seen. However, if evidence emerges that 365 Data Centers failed to take the necessary precautions to protect your information, you may be able to pursue a data breach lawsuit against the company.

What We Know About the Avem Health Partners Data Breach

Avem Health Partners, which provides administrative and technology services to healthcare organizations, outsources certain services to various other companies. One of these companies, in turn, uses the services of 365 Data Centers. Essentially, 365 data Centers performs certain services on behalf of one of the third-party vendors used by Avem.

The available information regarding the Avem Health Partners breach comes from the company’s filing with the Attorney General of Texas as well as a notice posted on the Avem website. Based on the available information, Avem was recently informed of a data security incident at 365 Data Centers.

On September 9, 2022, Avem notified the healthcare organizations that it serves about the data breach at 365 Data Centers. According to the investigation conducted by 365 Data Centers, an unauthorized party was able to access 365 Data Centers’ computer system at some point prior to May 14, 2022. Based on the information passed on to Avem, it appeared that the compromised files may have contained sensitive information belonging to certain Avem patients.

Upon discovering that sensitive patient data was made available to an unauthorized party, Avem Health Partners began to review the affected files to determine what information was compromised and which consumers were impacted. Avem completed this process on October 6, 2022. While the breached information varies depending on the individual, it may include your name, date of birth, Social Security number, driver’s license number, health insurance information, and diagnosis and treatment information.

On December 14, 2022, Avem Health Partners sent out data breach letters to all individuals whose information was compromised as a result of the recent data security incident.

More Information About Avem Health Partners and 365 Data Centers

Avem Health Partners (formerly First Physicians Capital Group) is a hospital management company based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The company specializes in providing financial, technology, management, and capital solutions to hospitals in rural markets. Through its services, it helps hospitals to improve reimbursement from payers, reduce bad debt exposure, retain qualified employees, provide specialized management services, and preserve quality healthcare services for the local community. Avem Health Partners employs more than 95 people and generates approximately $17 million in annual revenue.

365 Data Centers is a business services company based in Norwalk, Connecticut. The company is a network centric colocation provider, operating 20 carrier-neutral data centers, and provides a range of services to its corporate clients, including edge colocation, nationwide network connectivity, cloud compute and storage, DraaS (disaster recovery as a service), BaaS (banking as a service), and business continuity services. 365 Data Centers employs more than 130 people and generates approximately $21 million in annual revenue.