Shiel Sexton Notifies Employees of Privacy Incident Involving Third Party Vendor

Managed Care Weekly Digest

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Shiel Sexton announced that its employees are being notified related to a privacy incident involving certain information provided by a third party vendor, HCH Administration, Inc. ("HCH").

Shiel Sexton provides health insurance to its employees and beneficiaries through a self-funded plan. As part of providing plan benefits, Shiel Sexton contracts with other entities to administer certain services to its insured employees and their spouses and other beneficiaries. Until September 2012, Shiel Sexton contracted with HCH to administer health insurance claims. During the course of administering claims, HCH provided information to Shiel Sexton's stop loss carrier, SummitRe.

On January 10, 2017, while investigating an incident involving SummitRe, Shiel Sexton learned that HCH had provided employees' and beneficiaries' Social Security numbers for reinsurance pricing at some point prior to September 2012. Shiel Sexton's contract with HCH required, however, that HCH could provide only necessary information to other vendors. It was not necessary for Social Security numbers to be provided for reinsurance pricing.

Shiel Sexton has no evidence that any Social Security numbers were fraudulently misused as a result of this incident. Shiel Sexton sincerely regrets any inconvenience or concern this incident may have caused. Shiel Sexton no longer contracts with HCH. To help prevent a similar incident from occurring in the future, Shiel Sexton has ensured that its current claims administrator does not provide Social Security numbers as identification numbers for employees and beneficiaries (see also Shiel Sexton).

Shiel Sexton began mailing letters to affected individuals on January 27, 2017, and has established a dedicated call center to answer any questions. For more information about this incident, please call (844) 829-2388, Monday through Friday, between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (closed on U.S. observed holidays).