Boise dermatology clinic works to find out how patient records wound up in dumpster
Patient documents with personal information displayed were found in a dumpster in downtown Boise on Wednesday afternoon, a few miles away from the dermatology office where they belong.
That office is now filing a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act violation report, and trying to figure out what happened.
In a post on Reddit, a Boise-based user shared a photo of multiple boxes of papers containing what they said were billing information, medical information and personal patient information from Gem State Dermatology. The Reddit user told the Idaho Statesman that they found the load of documents in a dumpster near 11th Street, which is almost 3 miles away from the dermatology’s office on East Parkcenter Boulevard.
“I flipped thru some of it. It looks to be mostly billing info, personal information, and some medical info,” a post read.
Just a couple of hours later, the user commented that someone came by the dumpster and retrieved the documents.
Gem State Dermatology office manager Dan Trube told the Statesman that the office was not aware the documents had been dumped and sent someone to get them after seeing the Reddit post.
The office is working with an attorney to proceed with the appropriate steps, including self-reporting a HIPAA violation, Trube said. He told the Statesman that Gem State Dermatology is gathering information to figure out exactly how this incident happened.
“We want to just make sure everybody knows that we’re doing everything we can to make it right,” Trube said. “We want to make sure we take care of our patients.”
HIPAA law requires every medical office to correctly dispose of documents containing personal and medical information. While the law does not require a specific method for disposal, abandoning documents with personal information in trash containers accessible by the public is stated as illegal.
Medical offices are encouraged to shred, burn, pulp or pulverize physical documents, according to the website. If documents are rendered unreadable, then they can be disposed of in a publicly accessible dumpster, the law states.
Gem State Dermatology provides medical and cosmetic dermatology care, and is owned by Dr. Steven Mings, the clinic’s board-certified dermatologist.
This story was originally published July 9, 2026 at 1:40 PM.
