Nearly 6k Patients Lose Data to Utah Medicaid Breach
Table of Contents
- By Steven
- Published: Jun 16, 2023
- Last Updated: Jun 16, 2023
The Utah Medicaid office offers healthcare to qualifying patients throughout the state. These patients rely on the organization to provide them with their medical insurance and to offer other services to them. While providing those services, the organization maintains health and wellness information as well as personal data. That's why it's concerning that the Utah Medicaid office recently experienced a self-caused data breach. The issue wasn't caused by any sort of attack, but it still let confidential data go to the public and could put patients at risk.
How Did the Attack Occur?
The breach was the result of a programming error with its mailing system. Benefits letters for Medicaid recipients throughout the state were sent to the wrong addresses. This exposed patient data to others in the state. It's likely that the software used to print patient labels created the wrong labels for the wrong individuals. Either way, all those notices went to the wrong locations. Approximately 5,800 patients were exposed in this breach, and more than 200 of them had personal data inside the letters that could be harmful if given to someone that uses it improperly.
What Information Was Viewed or Stolen?
During the data breach, a variety of data points were included in the letters sent out. Information like the patient's first and last name, birth date, home address, phone number, and more. Some letters also included the patient ID number, which is their Social Security Number in many cases. No financial data was included in any of these notices, but enough information was provided to be harmful in some cases anyway.
How Did The Utah Medicaid Office Admit to the Breach?
The Utah Medicaid office sent an immediate notice to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services offering the details of the data breach. The breach details provided help Medicaid recipients take steps to protect themselves from potential issues. The office also sent individual notices to any of the patients involved in this breach. These notices inform everyone that their data may have been exposed, and they should look for any potential issues related to that.
What Will Become of the Stolen Information?
Most of the data is unlikely to be misused by their recipients. The data was mistakenly sent to the wrong addresses, and most of the people receiving the notices won't even open them. That doesn't mean that data won't be abused. It's possible that a few of the recipients will be interested in misusing the information and may attempt identity theft or another harmful data attack.
What Should Affected Parties Do in the Aftermath of the Breach?
If your information was exposed in this Utah Medicaid breach, you could protect yourself by investing in credit monitoring services to keep an eye on your personal credit reports for any odd changes. It's unlikely that you'll experience any serious issues because of this breach, but it isn't impossible. By reacting to the breach quickly, you can prepare yourself and make it easier to avoid any harmful results from this breach.
