SCAN Health Plan, a Medicare Advantage prescription drug plan serving parts of California and Arizona, is offering about 87,000 members one year of credit and identity protection services after a cyber attack.
The insurer learned on June 27 that contact sheets used for sales purposes had been accessed and “possibly viewed.” SCAN said that the sheets may have been accessed as early as March.
“We are confident this was not an organized attack on our systems with the intent to undermine our operations or deliberately compromise individuals’ identity,” a SCAN spokesperson tells Health Data Management. “A member called into SCAN to report a sales solicitation from an individual claiming to represent the organization. We immediately launched an investigation and learned that legitimate employee credentials were used for the unauthorized purpose of client development for an outside insurance agency. We are continuing to actively investigate this incident.”
To date, there is no indication that information has been used inappropriately, according to the plan. Compromised protected health information from the attack on SCAN Health included names, addresses, and phone numbers for all affected members, dates of birth and limited medical information for some others, and less than 500 Social Security numbers.
In a notification letter to affected members, SCAN Health gave detailed information on how to receive and review credit reports and the importance of getting a copy of the police report in the event of identity theft. In addition to the protection services being offered, the plan also suggested members place a fraud alert and security freeze on their files with credit bureaus.
