AMCA Files for Bankruptcy Protection After Breach

The parent company of healthcare debt collection firm American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA) has filed for bankruptcy protection following a major breach which is thought to have affected as many as 20 million patients. Its Chapter 11 filing in the Southern District of New York reveals the action was taken due to a “cascade of events” and “enormous expenses that were beyond the ability of the debtor to bear.” These were precipitated by that eight-month breach, discovered in March this year, which affected millions of patients of clients including Quest Diagnostics, LabCorp and BioReference. These were customers of the medical testing firms who owed them money. Data stolen by the hackers included payment card details, bank account information, personally identifiable information (PII) and lab test details, according to reports. Russell Fuchs, CEO of parent company Retrieval-Masters Creditors Bureau, lent AMCA $2.5m to help pay for a mass mailing effort of breach notifications for users which is said to have cost $3.8m. Some $400,000 was apparently spent on IT services to help with the remediation and investigation of the incident.