Palomar Health Medical Group employees frustrated by cybersecurity incident – ​​NBC 7 San Diego

Patients are still not getting answers from Palomar Health Medical Group, but they are not the only ones affected. One employee contacted NBC 7 Responds and said it is difficult to meet patient needs, which has been made more difficult by a cybersecurity incident that forced the medical group to shut down its phone and computer systems on May 5.

Meanwhile, patients told NBC 7 they were having trouble making appointments, getting test results and reordering prescriptions. An internal email to staff a few weeks ago said 85% of systems would be back online by July 1. That hasn’t happened, according to people NBC 7 spoke to.

NBC 7 contacted the medical group this week and sent the following statement in an email: “Palomar Health Medical Group is working hard to return to full operations by mid-July. We value our patients and thank them for their understanding and patience as we respond to this incident.”

The employee NBC 7 spoke to asked to remain anonymous for fear of backlash, but she said some teleworkers are unable to do their jobs due to system outages and their hours are being cut, forcing them to file for unemployment benefits. There has also been a change in leadership. An email to employees in early June announced that the CEO and the medical group “mutually decided to go their separate ways.”

In another email sent the same day, employees were informed that they would be switching to a new health insurance plan effective July 1.

PHMG did not respond to questions from NBC 7 about these changes or a federal data breach notification requirement. The rule states that health systems have 60 days after discovering a breach to inform patients, the media and the government what information may have been compromised and what they are doing to fix the problem. PHMG said it first discovered suspicious activity on May 5, so the deadline is fast approaching.

Sergio Flores of NBC 7 and Telemundo 20 Responds has been pushing for answers since the incident seven weeks ago.