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Letter alleges HIPAA Violations at medical group

Posted at 9:52 PM, Apr 12, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-13 11:42:37-04

7 Eyewitness News is looking into a letter detailing alleged HIPAA violations at a local medial group. 

The letter, sent on what appears to be Buffalo Medical Group letterhead, is apparently addressed to a patient claiming he is one of many patients whose personal information was compromised. 

The authors of the letter claim to be three anonymous employees, who want to bring violations and "breach of patient confidentiality" to light. 

The letter claims a nurse leaked private patient information to a former boyfriend who then told a Buffalo Medical Group official about it, but no action was taken. 

Whoever wrote the letter used the wrong acronym for HIPAA, which stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. 

The authors of this letter spell it as HIPPA, numerous times. 

Buffalo Medical Group issued a statement that reads in part: 

"Buffalo Medical Group Administration has also received this correspondence and is presently conducting our own internal investigation to determine the credibility of its content and what, if any, appropriate action needs to be taken.  We have reason to believe that this letter did not come our staff..."

Buffalo Medical Group has more than 130 doctors and sees about 250,000 patients every three years.