I heard about this yesterday from a co-worker who received my explanation of benefits in her mail. Thank GOD she is trustworthy and came forward to tell me she had received my information.
ATLANTA --- The largest health insurer in the state has sent letters containing personal information to the wrong addresses, exposing more than 200,000 Georgians to possible identity theft.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in Tuesday's editions that the letters were sent last week by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia. They include the patient's name and ID number, the name of the medical service provider and the amounts charged and owed.
Company spokeswoman Cindy Sanders said "a small percentage" of the letters also contained Social Security numbers.
State Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine said the matter is "very, very serious."
He has ordered the company to give written notice to policyholders whose names were on the Explanation of Benefits letters and compile a list of names of those who mistakenly received the forms. He also is requiring the company to give a year of free credit monitoring to all affected customers.
Company officials said the problem was caused by a change in the computer system. The problem has been fixed, officials said.
Blue Cross, which has about 3 million policyholders in Georgia, is removing all Social Security numbers from its mailings, Ms. Sanders said.
Comments
I heard about this yesterday from a co-worker who received my explanation of benefits in her mail. Thank GOD she is trustworthy and came forward to tell me she had received my information.
Seems like when chaning to a new computer system you'd check these kind of things before putting it online!
You hear of private industries doing this all of the time, yet everyone is fearful of Government overseeing or getting involved in heath care. Rarely do you hear of the Government being so lacked with our information.
Stupid is as Stupid does. What good is a year free of crdit monitoring? It should be free healthcare for a year. Why include the social security number on any type of document. The last four digits should be enough information. Company's should learn to test all aspects of their computer systems.
Not only does this pose a thret to our idenity how about H.I.P.A. violation I realy want someone knowing my health issues I believe that posses some healthy fines to Blue Crooss on 200,000 people. I guess we as policy holders will pay for these fines in the long run.
Um, spellcheck? It's easy - most computers have it and it makes for a more understandable posting. Now aside from that, I recently received someone else's banking statement in the envelope with mine. It contained all the information I would need to really wreak havoc but I just mailed it on to its intended recipient. WEEKS later my credit union, from which the statement had come, asked me to send it back to them. At least they immediately terminated the company which was generating their statements but there is nothing to keep the new company from doing the same. When everything is automated and there is no human oversight these errors will continue to happen. There is absolutely NO privacy anywhere any more. Companies continue to do these things, then apologize thinking all is well. If they face some kind of punishment each time, financial payments as well as some kind of sanctions, then just maybe they will have sense enough to once again introduce the human element into transactions.
The fine for exposing personally identifiable health information is $10,000 per incident. If you turn them in to the Dept. of Health and Human Services, and DHHS determines that they are at fault for negligence in exposing your PHI, they could face up to $2 billion dollars in fines. That was BILLION with a "B." I wonder if this is the winfall DHHS was waiting for?!?
I believe that the policy holders should received $5,000 each for this exposure of information. I could sure use the money! LOL
A family member who has an Augusta lawyer sent her some paper work that included someone elses law suit. When she tried to return it "HE" got mad at her! I can't figure that one out. People in to big a hurry to pay attention to what they are doing!
Now everybody is going to know that I have hemorrhoids
One more reason to sign up for Life Lock.
It is inevitable that this is going to occur with as much personal information that has become computerized. We don't have a clue how much has been obtained by hackers over the years. We only hear about the major screw ups that occur and someone gets caught.
Wells Fargo Mortgage must hold the record for repeat screw ups. Imagine letting folks carry this stuff around on laptops to be lost or stolen!!
OOOh boy the Fit sho did hit the Shan! This is a lawyers dream come true, but in the end all the policy holders will pay dearly. There needs to be life imprisonment or death penalties for internet security hackers. The Wild West philosophy of the internet cannot be maintained.
This is not funny. I am so upset. I called BC last week about another problem and was asked if I had received my package and of course my answer was no. They didn't tell me that the mailings were scattered all over the state(?). BTW, My ID number with BC is my SS#. Sure does a body good to know all this is out there....... somewhere.
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