The University of Pennsylvania Health System revealed Monday that some patients ' privacy was accidentally breached because of misprinted bills . One of Penn 's billing vendors , RevSpring of Wixom , Mich. , had a malfunction in its printing operation . As a result , some patients received bills containing both their own correct information and an unrelated patient 's information on the reverse side of the statement . The inadvertent information included the unrelated patient 's name , physician , types of services and tests , and amount owed . " Social Security numbers , dates of birth , diagnoses , and insurance numbers were not printed on these " misprinted bills , Penn said in a statement . More than 500 erroneous statements , affecting more than 1,000 patients , were mailed , although Penn spokeswoman Susan E. Phillips said she did not have an exact number . The vendor discovered and reported the problem to Penn on Dec. 5 and has since worked to investigate it , notify affected patients , and make sure the error does not recur , Phillips said . " We have n't had any angry patients , " she added . " Just people calling to say , ' Is n't this odd ? ' " Patients with questions about misprinted bills may call Penn 's hotline at 877 - 309 - 0186 . The federal HIPAA law protects the privacy of individually identifiable health information , and requires businesses to provide notification following a breach . The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has discretion to impose monetary penalties , depending on the nature and extent of the violation and the resulting harm . If the violation is unintentional and is corrected within 30 days , there are no penalties . ;