BCBS of Tennessee Breach Costs Carrier $10 Million

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee has accrued $10 million in costs from the member identity theft that occurred last fall. Hard drives were stolen from a facility the insurer had leased from a call center, impacting almost 1 million members.

According to the Tennessee Blues’ website, 239,103 members who had their name, address, BlueCross member ID number, diagnosis, Social Security number and/or date of birth stolen were considered most at risk. Members were notified through a series of mailings, and those most at risk are said to have received free identity protection from Kroll and free Equifax credit monitoring for one year.

The Tennessee Blues’ site also said that as of May 28, 2010 there has been “no documented incident of identity theft or credit fraud of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee members as a result of this incident.”