CalOptima Reports Data Breach That Could Affect 68,000 Members
Unencrypted CDs containing names, diagnosis codes, Social Security numbers and other information for about 68,000 CalOptima members have been lost, sparking concerns about identity theft, Computerworld reports.
CalOptima is Orange County's Medi-Cal managed care plan. Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program.
In a statement, CalOptima explained that a claims scanning vendor had sent the CDs to CalOptima via certified mail, but CalOptima only received the outside packaging, not the box with the CDs.
A spokesperson for the health plan said there is no evidence that the CDs were stolen (Vijayan, Computerworld, 10/26).
The statement said that CalOptima informed state and federal agencies of the situation on Oct. 14 and posted an alert on its Web site on Oct. 15 (Goedert, Health Data Management, 10/26).
CalOptima is making arrangements to offer credit monitoring services to members affected by the breach (Computerworld, 10/26). This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.