Utah Medicaid Files Breached, Affecting Thousands

It’s happened again. It’s possible that 24,000 Medicaid claims have been hacked into in Utah, where the Department of Health (DOH) has begun investigating a data breach, according to a story by Joseph Goedert.

But they now know who did not follow security protocol, resulting in the breach, according to a story by Patty Henetz.

The breach was discovered by the state’s Department of Technology Services (DTS) on March 30 when a server housing Medicaid claims was breached.

“DTS had recently moved the claims records to a new server, and hackers believed to be operating out of Eastern Europe were able to circumvent the server’s multi-layered security system,” a DOH statement said, according to Goedert. “DTS had recently moved the claims records to a new server, and hackers believed to be operating out of Eastern Europe were able to circumvent the server’s multi-layered security system.”

DTS is looking into just how many Medicaid recipients may be affected and the types of data breached. The data typically stored on the servers contains a lot of valuable personal information, including names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, physician’s names, national provider identifiers, tax identification numbers and procedure codes for billing, according to the statement.

DTS is also investigating every server in the state government to ensure they are secure.

Affected individuals will be notified by mail by the health department, according to Goedert, but suggests Medicaid recipients start by checking their credit and bank accounts. The department will also provide free credit monitoring services to those whose Social Security numbers were compromised.

Even more information could have been stolen as the files contain information on hospitals, clinics and other providers who commonly gather and consolidate Medicaid claims and submit them to the state in batches, according to Henetz.