Tenet Healthcare employee arrested for stealing patient information

Tenet warns South Floridians of stolen patient information

Tenet Healthcare Corp. is asking patients nationwide -- including some at all its South Florida hospitals -- to watch for credit fraud since police arrested an employee for stealing patient information.

The employee, who was fired, worked in Tenet's billing office in Frisco, Texas, where he had access to 40,000 of the office's 4 million accounts. Terrance Brooks, 30, of Fort Worth, was arrested Nov. 25 when he tried to open a Costco credit card using a state ID with fraudulent information, police said.

Brooks had information from 90 patients in his possession, which violates company policy against removing billing files from the office, said company spokesman Steven Campanini. Those patients were contacted by phone first. MORE

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* Read the FTC's Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data for 2007 (PDF).

Between January and December 2007, Consumer Sentinel, the complaint database developed and maintained by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), received over 800,000 consumer fraud and identity theft complaints.

Consumers reported losses from fraud of more than $1.2 billion...and that number only counts those who actually reported losses.