Medicaid fraud scheme affects 13K in Louisiana

A Louisiana individual is accused of stealing electronic information related to about 13,000 Medicaid recipients enrolled in Louisiana Healthcare Connections (LHCC).

The person in question, arrested on Jan. 27, is charged with scheming to defraud the state's Medicaid program.

"We take the privacy and security of protected health information very seriously and are cooperating fully with the Attorney General’s office in this investigation," LHCC said in a notification. "We appreciate the efforts of the Attorney General and local law enforcement to bring those responsible to justice. We regret any concern or inconvenience this incident may have caused and are dedicated to protecting our members’ health information. We are also reviewing existing information security protocols and taking steps to prevent this type of event from happening in the future."

The Louisiana Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit informed LHCC of the investigation on Dec. 3, 2015. The investigation dates back to an incident on March, 3, 2015, in which a physician's office employee used someone else's information to gain access to the LHCC provider website. That individual then downloaded a list of the office's LHCC patients and shared the information with another provider, according to the notice posted on the LHCC website.

Compromised information includes member names, Medicaid ID numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers, addresses and Medicaid effective dates. Credit card information, financial information and Social Security numbers were not included.