About 800,000 doctors -- nearly every practicing physician in the country -- are being warned that business and personal information such as Social Security numbers, addresses and certain identification numbers may be open for a possible breach after an insurance trade group employee's laptop was stolen from a car in Chicago.
The Chicago-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, a trade group for the nation's Blue Cross health insurance plans, confirmed an employee "broke protocol and transferred to a personal laptop" information that was later stolen in late August.
No patient information was on the database, so concern by consumers having personal health records breached is unwarranted, the association said. And doctors have not reported security breaches.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Blue Cross warns doctors about stolen identification data
The Chicago Tribune reports:
