Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. last week sent out notices to about 37,000 patients informing them about the potential compromise of their personal and financial data (Compare Data Leak Protection products).

The warning came after Terrence Brooks, a former data processor at a Tenet bill-processing center in Frisco, Texas, was arrested last month and subsequently pleaded guilty to five counts of fraudulent possession and use of identification information stolen from Tenet.

Steven Campanini, a spokesman for Tenet, said that Brooks' illegal activity was discovered after the Arlington Police Department in Texas told the company that it was investigating potential consumer fraud involving Tenet data last December. After the problem was traced to Brooks, he was fired and immediately arrested, Campanini said.

At the time of his arrest, Brooks had identity information belonging to about 90 patients in his possession, Campanini said. Brooks last month pleaded guilty to the charges and is currently serving a nine-month sentence.

Tenet has contacted each of the 90 people via phone and informed them about the data theft. It is also offering them free credit-monitoring services for a year, Campanini said.

In addition to those 90 patients whose information he had, Brooks also had access to the records of another 37,000 people through his work in the bill-processing center, Campanini said. There is no indication that Brooks actually accessed or misused any of that information, but Tenet has informed all of the potentially affected individuals anyway, he said.

"This is an isolated incident that affects only a small number" of accounts, Campanini said. The Frisco bill-processing center handles more than 4 million accounts, so the number of affected records represents less than 1% of the total.

"We recognize there is an annoyance factor here, and we apologize for that," Campanini said, adding that it's impossible for a company to completely prevent such incidents despite taking precautions.

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