BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The LSU hospital system has notified 416 patients that their checking account numbers and other personal information on checks paid to hospitals has been stolen.
The LSU Health Care Services Division began notifying patients in November, after learning about the identity thefts from state police, spokesman Marvin McGraw said in an email Wednesday.
Sheila Seal, an employee at the LSU hospital in Bogalusa, and her husband, Washington Parish Sheriff Randy Seal, have said counterfeit checks totaling $2,500 were written on their account. Capt. Tommie Sorrell told The Daily News of Bogalusa that $25,000 was taken from 19 people in Washington Parish.
Patients' bank account numbers and other information on the checks scanned into hospital system records were used to make counterfeit checks and ID cards, said Trooper Jared Sandifer, a Louisiana State Police spokesman.
People notified by LSU should check their credit history and review this year's bank statements for unauthorized checks, reporting any they find to their banks and to LSU at 1-800-735-1185.
Sandifer did not know the total amount bought with counterfeit checks in stores throughout Louisiana and in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. Almost all the counterfeit checks used the name of someone who had paid an LSU hospital or doctor by check. Most live in Louisiana but some live in 12 other states, police have said.
Former billing department employee Pamela Reams was booked in November with 377 counts of identity theft and is free on $60,000 bond. State police said Washington Parish sheriff's detectives first identified her and three other women on surveillance video that allegedly showed them buying items with counterfeit checks at several Washington Parish stores.
A total of seven people were booked with identity theft. Some were released without bond; bonds for others range from $5,000 to $26,000.
Information taken from the checks may have included checking account, driver's license, and Social Security numbers, date of birth, and other information, McGraw said.
LSU said the hospital system has re-evaluated policies and procedures about employee access of patient confidential information.
It also is investigating to find a starting date and checking computer access reports to see if any other patients' information may have been inappropriately accessed, McGraw said. "It's a slow process, but if that's found to be the case, those patients will be notified," McGraw said in his email.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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