The Utah Medicaid office handles government-funded health insurance and administers benefits to qualifying patients located anywhere in Utah. This organization maintains health and personal information for hundreds of thousands of individuals, and some of that information was just exposed to the wrong people because of a mistake made in the office.
The Utah Medicaid breach occurred because of a software error that sent Medicaid benefit letters to the wrong locations. By sending the letters to the wrong addresses, personal patient data was given to the wrong household, potentially exposing these individuals.
The Utah Medicaid department realized the mistake had been made on May 8, 2023. At that time, it reported the issue to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services and began sending individual notices to anyone that may have been exposed in the breach.
A total of 5,800 individuals were involved in this data breach, and approximately 200 of them may have had their Social Security Numbers exposed. The breach only impacts Medicaid recipients, and it's unlikely the data will be misused, but there is always a risk involved. If you receive a notice about the breach, you should monitor your credit closely for any odd changes to it.
No files were involved in this Medicaid data breach. Instead, approximately 5,800 letters were sent to the wrong addresses. The result is the same, and information for thousands of individuals has been exposed.