Notice of Data Incident
August 1, 2023

Dear Patients:
We post this Notice pursuant to the United States Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) to inform you about a data incident involving an unauthorized release of patient Protected Health Information (“PHI”), as that is defined by HIPAA, at Gary Motykie, M.D., a Medical Corporation and Gary Motykie, M.D. (“Practice”), a covered entity under HIPAA.

PHI, as defined by HIPAA, is information that is “created, received, maintained, or transmitted by or on behalf of the health care component of the Covered Entity.” § 164.105 (a)(2)(i)(D). Information that is created or received by a Covered Entity and that relates to the past, present, or future physical or mental health or condition of an individual; or the past, present, or future payment for the provision of healthcare to an individual is considered PHI. PHI is required to be protected when transmitted or maintained in any form by a Covered Entity. Individual identifiers (including but not limited to name, address, telephone number, fax, email address, social security number, medical record number, etc.) maintained in a designated record set along with health information (including but not limited to x-rays, images, scans, physician notes, diagnoses, treatment, eligibility approvals, claims, remittances, etc.) are collectively considered PHI.

Event Description:
On or about June 6, 2023, an initial technical analysis of the Practice’s information technology network determined an unauthorized release of PHI occurred to an unknown third party. The initial analysis determined that the unknown third party accessed the Practice’s network. It was further determined that the unknown third party acquired some of the Practice’s patient’s unencrypted PHI and that party was not authorized to do so and did so in an unlawful manner.

The information that may have been accessed or acquired during this unauthorized access included:

  • First and last name 
  • Social Security Number (if provided)
  • Address
  • Driver’s license or identification card number
  • Financial account or payment card number, in combination with any required CVV code
  • Intake forms, which may include medical information and history
  • Images taken in connection with the services rendered at our office
  • Health insurance information (if provided)
Steps Taken to Address:
Upon discovery, the Practice took the following immediate steps to address the situation:
  • Computers and servers replaced
  • Network passwords changed
  • Endpoint detection, virus, and malware detection tools and software installed on workstations and server
  • Limitations concerning Internet access
  • Access controls put in place for users based on role and responsibility
  • Server policies in place
  • Device locking mechanisms
  • Multi factor authentication enabled
  • Network segregation efforts
  • Encryption of devices
  • Additional workforce training
Risk Assessment:

The Practice conducted a risk assessment to evaluate the potential harm to potentially impacted individuals. Based on that assessment, it is determined that there is a high risk of harm. It is essential for potentially impacted individuals to remain vigilant in monitoring their personal accounts and data and promptly report any suspicious activity to law enforcement or their financial institutions.

Assistance and Resources:
Starting on or about June 22, 2023, letters were mailed to patients providing the following resources to assist the potentially impacted individuals, offering at no cost:
  • two (2) years of no cost Triple Bureau Credit Monitoring/Triple Bureau Credit Report/Triple Bureau Credit Score/Cyber Monitoring services.
  • the services also include reviewing whether Information appears on the dark web and alert the individual if such Information is found online.
  • proactive fraud assistance to help with any questions in event a potentially impacted persons becomes a victim of fraud.

Steps to Prevent Future Incidents: We deeply regret any inconvenience or concern this Incident may cause. The Practice is taking numerous steps to help prevent similar Incidents in the future. We will continue to review and enhance our security measures, policies, and employee training.

If you failed to receive your letter in the mail, and/or if there is a concern your mailing address has changed since you were a patient at the Practice, please contact 1-800-405-6108 or call our office immediately at 310-246-2355 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Pacific time, Monday through Friday.

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49 year old female patient facial rejuvenation (facelift & facial fat grafting) before & after pictures

About: 49 year old female patient that underwent facial rejuvenation that included a facelift & facial fat grafting.

49 year old female patient facial rejuvenation (facelift & facial fat grafting) before & after pictures

Before & After

49 year old female patient facial rejuvenation (facelift & facial fat grafting) before & after pictures

Before & After

See more plastic surgery before & after photos.

What is a Facelift?

49 year old female patient facial rejuvenation (facelift & facial fat grafting) before & after pictures

Before & After

A facelift, or rhytidectomy, is a surgical procedure that improves visible signs of aging in the face and neck, such as:

  • Sagging in the middle of your face
  • Deep creases below the lower eyelids
  • Deep creases along the nose extending to the corner of the mouth
  • Fat that has fallen or has disappeared
  • Loss of skin tone in the lower face that creates jowls
  • Loose skin and excess fatty deposits under the chin and jaw can give even a person of normal weight the appearance of a double chin

The loss of youthful contours in the face can be due to a variety of factors, including heredity, gravity, environmental conditions, and stress.

Rejuvenation procedures typically performed in conjunction with a facelift are brow lift, to correct a sagging or deeply furrowed brow, and eyelid surgery to rejuvenate aging eyes.

What a facelift won’t do

As a restorative surgery, a facelift does not change your fundamental appearance and cannot stop the aging process.

A facelift can only be performed surgically; non-surgical rejuvenation treatments cannot achieve the same results, but may help delay the time at which a facelift becomes appropriate and complement the results of surgery.

What is Facial Fat Grafting, and Volume Restoration?

Besides wrinkling and gravity, volume loss to the face has become increasingly recognized as an important component to the aging process, which can be restored with either office-based fillers or facial fat grafting.

Fat grafting, through a gentle hand-harvesting method, purification process, and microdroplet injection technique, has shown to improve durability compared with older techniques that could compromise transplanted fat longevity.

A metaphor can help people understand the role of fat grafting: when we are young we are a full, ripe grape and as we become older we deflate into a raisin. The question then is why should we cut and pull the raisin into a pea, when we should think about reinflating it back into a grape. Clearly, fat grafting is not a treatment for all aging, just the part that involves loss of volume.

Volume loss is particularly more pronounced around the eyes, cheeks, and jawline, where fat grafting can play the greatest role in creating a balanced and comprehensive rejuvenation strategy for the face that may include blepharoplasty (cosmetic eyelid surgery) and/or a facelift.

Fat grafting involves removing fat from one’s own abdomen or thighs to put into certain regions of the face that start to lose fat. Only tiny amounts of fat are removed so this should not be equated with liposuction. Using blunt cannulas (which are 1 mm hollow tubes with a blunt end and a small hole through which the fat comes out) the fat is injected as little droplets throughout the areas of facial hollowness. By using this microdroplet technique, grafted fat has a much higher blood supply so that survival is improved and the results are smoother given how small each individual fat parcel is.

To see more services and treatments provided by Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Motykie in Beverly Hills | Los Angeles and his team please visit:

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