Breach, Data Security

Thousands of California doctors impacted in Anthem breach

Thousands of doctors at Anthem Blue Cross of California are being notified that their personal information was mistakenly posted online.

How many victims? Roughly 5,800. 

What type of personal information? Names, business addresses, tax identification numbers and Social Security numbers.

What happened? PDF documents containing the information on the doctors were mistakenly posted to the Anthem.com website.

What was the response? Upon discovery of the error, Anthem took down the documents, removed the personal information and re-posted the PDFs properly. All affected individuals have been notified and are being offered a free year of credit monitoring services.

Details: The documents – which were intended to help people get information on physicians in certain networks – were posted to the Anthem.com website for more than 24 hours on Oct. 23.

Quote: “This was an isolated occurrence,” Cindy Wakefield, an Anthem spokesperson, said. “Appropriate corrective actions have been implemented, and process improvements for posting provider data online have been reviewed with the team.”

Source: healthcareitnews.com, “Docs feel brunt of Anthem breach,” Nov. 22, 2013

UPDATE: An Anthem spokesperson said Monday that the breach affected 24,500 doctors, according to reports.

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