Dive Brief:
- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City, MO has notified 2,546 members that their information was compromised when one of its employees improperly accessed their personal and financial information, according to Becker's Hospital Review.
- In February, BCBS of Kansas City was contacted by two of its members, who told the health plan that unauthorized charges had been on credit cards they had recently used to make payments on their policy.
- Not long thereafter, the health plan discovered that one of its employees had improperly accessed members' names, addresses, credit card information and bank account information, according to a notification letter BCBS of Kansas City sent out to its affected members.
Dive Insight:
BCBS of Kansas City is doing what all health entities do when there's been a breach of private information, sending letters out to affected members and offering a year of free identification protection. However, these remedies are just a Band-Aid on a gaping wound. The reality is that criminal activity with health care organizations' data is likely to become more common, as the industry is not up to snuff when it comes to data security.