Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia Mailing Mistake Violates HIPAA, Sets Customers Up for Identity Theft
July 30th, 2008 amy
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia sent 202,000 explanation of benefits letters to the wrong addresses last week, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, putting these customers at risk for identity theft in many cases.
The letters, which were mistakenly directed to the addresses of other policyholders, included names and insurance identification numbers of patients as well as the names of the doctors and other medical providers they were using, the AJC reports. A small proportion of the letters also had Social Security numbers, a spokeswoman for the company told the paper.
Vulnerability to identity theft is one concern. But EOB letters are especially sensitive from a privacy standpoint because they contain some treatment information. The security breach may be a violation of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which protects patients’ medical information.
