Health insurer Highmark blames mailroom error as private data sent to wrong subscribers
By Alex Nixon, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The state's largest health insurer said an error by a mailroom employee led to an unknown number of Security Blue and Freedom Blue members receiving the results of risk assessments belonging to others. The forms included member names, addresses, dates of birth, some medical information and their unique member identification numbers.
"There is no evidence at all that any of the information that was mailed in error has been accessed or used inappropriately," the insurer said in a statement.
The mailings went out on
Medications being taken by members, scores on mood tests for depression and scores for frailty tests were among the medical information included on some of the risk assessments, Martinelli said.
"It is unlikely that anyone has done anything with this data," she said.
Under medical privacy rules included in the 1996 federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, health insurers, hospitals and other medical providers are required to have policies and procedures in place to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of personal medical information. When a breach involving 500 or more people occurs, they must notify the Health and
HHS spokeswoman
Highmark spokesman
An HHS online database of reported medical data breaches lists 36 incidents in
Highmark has changed the member ID numbers of all 3,675 members who might have been affected. The mailroom employee who was responsible for the error was fired, Martinelli said.
Highmark was able to confirm that 63 members received forms that did not belong to them and 233 did not receive any mailing, meaning their forms may have been sent to other members or were lost in the mail, she said.
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