Blue Cross exposes PHI of close to 200 policyholders
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, September 5, 2005
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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida last month inadvertently disclosed the Social Security numbers of close to 200 long-term care insurance policyholders, reports The Florida Times-Union. Out of 1,900 letters the health plan sent out, 194 had members' Social Security numbers listed above their mailing addresses.
The majority of the improperly labeled letters went to northeast Florida addresses, reports The Time-Union. And all but six went to Blue Cross employees, relatives of employees, or retirees.
Blue Cross blamed human error and said it intends to inform affected policyholders of the labeling error. Two years ago, the plan voluntarily began to do away with Social Security-based policy numbers, but did not update the old numbers for one group of customers. Blue Cross does not believe the labeling error is a HIPAA violation because the plan didn't include the Social Security numbers with willful neglect and took corrective action within 30 days of identifying the problem. The insurer has since updated the policy numbers.
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