Social Security Administration worker loses files
HIPAA Weekly Advisor, April 23, 2007
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The confidential files of six Wisconsin residents who sought Social Security disability benefits, along with documents from seven other files, disappeared for several months after a Social Security Administration employee took them home to work on them.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the files include Social Security numbers, addresses, phone numbers of family members, dates of birth, and work history information. All of the applicants had been waiting at least two years for a final decision about whether they qualified for disability benefits when their files were lost. The Social Security Administration has delayed their benefits as a result of the lost files.
The agency never recovered four of the files; it located two after someone anonymously mailed them back to the office in early December 2006. Documents from the seven other files also showed up at the agency's Milwaukee offices in separate packages. Social Security employees are gathering medical and other information for the four files that were completely lost.
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