BCBS of Rhode Island blames vendor for breach of customer data

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island notified 1,567 members  that an unnamed vendor responsible for sending members’ benefits explanations  breached their personal healthcare information, according to a media statement shared with Becker’s Hospital Review.

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BCBS learned of the incident in mid-July. The payer told members some of the members’ benefit summaries “were sent to the wrong BCBSRI member in the same household or on the same family policy … In no case, however, was any information disclosed to anyone other than a family member or a person covered on the same family policy.”

BCBS “immediately directed the vendor to stop combining healthcare services summaries. For now, members are receiving an individual summary for each service while BCBSRI explores a long-term solution that would allow services to be grouped into one summary.”

The summaries included member names, their BCBSRI ID numbers, service providers, types of service provided and costs of claims. Social Security numbers and birth dates were not included.

BCBS  did not disclose the name of the vendor, but said it uses the third party organization “to combine healthcare service summaries for some members who were covered on the same policy in an effort to reduce the number of summaries members received.”

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