Security News > 2024 > February > Quest Diagnostics pays $5M after mixing patient medical data with hazardous waste
Quest Diagnostics has agreed to pay almost $5 million to settle allegations it illegally dumped protected health information - and hazardous waste - at its facilities across California.
Quest takes patient privacy and the protection of the environment very seriously and has made significant investments to implement industry best practices to ensure hazardous waste, medical waste, and confidential patient information are disposed of properly.
These include investing in technologies for treatment of biological waste, secured destruction of patient information, programs to maximize recycling efforts and minimize waste-to-landfill disposal, waste-to-energy recovery of non-recyclable wastes, and enhanced waste audit and inspection measures to ensure continued compliance with applicable laws.
"Through our meticulous waste audits, it came to light that Quest Diagnostics may have encountered challenges in properly managing confidential patient data, medical waste, and hazardous materials," San Joaquin County district attorney Ron Freitas gushed.
This waste and data disposal broke hazardous waste law, California's Medical Waste Management Act, unfair competition law, and civil laws prohibiting the unauthorized disclosure of personal health information, prosecutors argued in their court submissions [PDF].
While improperly dumping hazardous waste can have terrible human health and environmental consequences, leaving people's personal records in places where identity thieves can pilfer them - even if they have to wade through bio-waste to get it - isn't particularly ideal, either.