Tufts Health Plan notifies 70k members after envelope windows exposed their plan ID

Tufts Health Plan in Watertown, Mass., is alerting 70,000 members to an inadvertent disclosure of their health plan information after it was exposed in the window of envelopes mailed out by one of its vendors, the insurer told Becker's Hospital Review.

Between Dec. 11, 2017 and Jan. 2, a vendor that Tufts Health Plan contracts with for mailing services mailed plan ID cards with the member's ID number, name and address visible inside the envelope window.  Tufts Health Plan learned the full extent of this error Jan. 18.

The incident did not reveal Social Security numbers, Medicare ID numbers, banking or credit card information, medical information or insurance claims data. Importantly, the organization's IT systems were not accessed or breached.

"We have consulted with experts in the legal and fraud areas, and we have determined that this situation presents a very low risk to any member's personal information," reads a notice of the organization's website. "We have no indication that anyone other than the postal service would have been able to view the member ID number while the letter was in transit to the member."

Tufts Health Plan adds that it worked with its vendor to resolve the error, and the plan's customer relations team has procedures in place to ensure confidential member information is not shared with anyone other than the member or their authorized representative.

More articles on payer issues:
BCBS of Texas: Texas Health Resources seeks nearly $1B in rate increases
Senate Democrats demand answers from Aetna CEO on insurer's claims review process
Insurance startup Clover Health shrinks loss to $22M in 2017

Copyright © 2024 Becker's Healthcare. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Linking and Reprinting Policy.

 

Top 40 articles from the past 6 months