Medicare Data Breach: Letters Sent Regarding New Cards Issued to 254K Recipients
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Nicole Spector
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Those receiving Medicare should be on the lookout for new mail in the coming weeks. As many as 254,000 Medicare beneficiaries’ personal information may have been compromised in a data breach, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) officials announced on Wednesday. As a result, those impacted will be issued new Medicare cards and ID numbers and sent a letter from CMS notifying them of the breach.
The data breach occurred during a ransomware attack on Oct. 8 at Healthcare Management Solutions, LLC, a subcontractor of ASRC Federal Data Solutions, LLC, and may involve Medicare beneficiaries’ personally identifiable information and/or protected health information.
The beneficiary information that may have been compromised in the breach includes names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, banking information, and Medicare entitlement, Medicare beneficiary identifier, enrollment and premium information.
CMS confirmed that no CMS systems were breached and no Medicare claims data were involved.
“The safeguarding and security of beneficiary information is of the utmost importance to this Agency,” said Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, CMS Administrator in the announcement. “We continue to assess the impact of the breach involving the subcontractor, facilitate support to individuals potentially affected by the incident, and will take all necessary actions needed to safeguard the information entrusted to CMS.”
Medicare provides services to 64.5 million Americans.
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