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COULD VET'S MEDICAL RECORDS END UP IN TERRORIST'S HANDS?

Veterans and soldiers private medical records outsourced, shipped overseas to the very same region where we are fighting the war on terror.  Could that information end up in the hands of terrorists?  Jonathan Hunt reports, you decide.

Susan Purdue was the computer Systems Administrator at this Asheville, North Carolina office of MedQuist, a New Jersey based company providing medical transcription for Veterans hospitals.  Shortly after 9-11, she noticed the times on some files transmitted from another office were half a day off and called to ask why.

“I was told that the reason for the discrepancy in the time stamp was because it was our offshore stuff and I said "offshore where" and she said well India and Pakistan but our clients don't know about that so don't say anything.”

In the following months, thousands of medical records were sent over the open Internet to InfoScript, a subcontractor in India.  Purdue feared that anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of computers might be able to access the records and in a region known to be home to Al Qaeda. 

Purdue said, “I was watching this report upload and it was about this soldier who had been injured in Kandajar and he had been sent home and told to follow up with his local VA.”

Purdue’s managers told her to drop the issue, but in Sept 2002 she told them she was calling the FBI.  Six months later, MedQuist closed its Asheville office.  Purdue was the only employee not given another job. 

MedQuist executives declined to appear on camera, but told us in a statement they believe that outsourcing of VA and Defense dept records has discontinued.

But they also said, "MedQuist is not in a position to confirm with certainty the adequacy of InfoScript's security measures prior to 2002."

Citing an ongoing investigation, the VA would not discuss MedQuist directly but said contractors are required to safeguard patient data although "There are no regulations...that specifically address transcription work being performed offshore." VA Spokesperson

Little comfort for Susan Purdue.

Purdue said, “The thing that keeps me awake at night to this day is thinking that some terrorist is going to come in this country with perfectly good travel credentials that belong to a veteran.” 

In Asheville, North Carolina - Jonathan Hunt, Fox News

For more information on this story you can contact Jonathan Hunt at jonathan.hunt@...