The theft of a mail truck carrying protected health information is the source of a data breach affecting 2,400 members of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente.
The mail truck was reportedly stolen between March 12 and March 14, according to The Press-Enterprise. It was parked in an insecure area, a violation of Kaiser Permanente's vendor mail delivery policies. The vehicle was recovered, but the mail was not, according to the report.
The mail truck was carrying handbooks for Kaiser Permenante California Medi-Cal Members in Southern California who are part of the Inland Empire Health Plan. The missing mail, along with the handbooks, contained names and addresses of health plan members. No Social Security numbers, medical record numbers or descriptions of medical services, health status or financial or account information were compromised, according to the report.
Kaiser Permanente officials told The Press-Enterprise there is no reason to believe any stolen information could be used for improper or fraudulent activity.
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.