Health insurer Centene announced an ongoing comprehensive internal search for six lost hard drives that contain the health data of 950,000 individuals.
The hard drives contained the personal health information of certain individuals who received laboratory services from 2009-2015 including name, address, date of birth, Social Security number, member ID number and health information. The hard drives do not include any financial or payment information.
"Centene takes the privacy and security of our members' information seriously," said Michael F. Neidorff, Chairman, President and CEO of Centene, in a release. "While we don't believe this information has been used inappropriately, out of abundance of caution and in transparency, we are disclosing an ongoing search for the hard drives. The drives were a part of a data project using laboratory results to improve the health outcomes of our members."
Affected individuals will be offered free credit and healthcare monitoring. Centene is working on reinforcing and reviewing its procedures related to managing its IT assets.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.