Unencrypted CDs containing names, diagnosis codes, Social Security numbers and other information for about 68,000 CalOptima members have been lost, sparking concerns about identity theft, Computerworld reports.
CalOptima is Orange County's Medi-Cal managed care plan. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program.
In a statement, CalOptima explained that a claims scanning vendor had sent the CDs to CalOptima via certified mail, but CalOptima only received the outside packaging, not the box with the CDs.
A spokesperson for the health plan said there is no evidence that the CDs were stolen (Vijayan, Computerworld, 10/26).
The statement said that CalOptima informed state and federal agencies of the situation on Oct. 14 and posted an alert on its Web site on Oct. 15 (Goedert, Health Data Management, 10/26).
CalOptima is making arrangements to offer credit monitoring services to members affected by the breach (Computerworld, 10/26).
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From today's OC Register:
Lost personal information of Medi-Cal members is found
October 29th, 2009, 6:00 am by Courtney Perkes
CalOptima, the county’s Medi-Cal provider, has found lost electronic claims records that contain identifying information belonging to as many as 68,000 members.
Discs of data were lost two weeks ago after being sent certified mail by CalOptima’s scanning vendor. When only the packaging arrived, but not the box with the discs, CalOptima notified the state. On Wednesday, the U.S. Postal Service located the discs in Atlanta, said Margaret Tatar, director of public affairs.
The discs were not password protected, but it appears no one accessed the confidential information, Tatar said.
CalOptima had planned to send letters notifying members of the lost information and offering them credit monitoring services. Anyone with questions should call 800-509-4225 or visit www.caloptima.org
The medical record data for adults and children included names, addresses, birthdays and some Social Security numbers.
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