Montana-based New West Health Services d/b/a New West Medicare recently suffered potential healthcare data breach following a laptop theft.
New West announcement did not specify how many individuals were potentially affected by the incident. According to the OCR data breach reporting tool, the impacted count stands at 28,209.
New West in a statement explained that the password-protected laptop was stolen from an off-site location. It contained information on past and present New West customers.
Affected information includes customers’ names, addresses, and in some cases driver’s license numbers and Social Security numbers
Laptop theft leads to Data Breach
or Medicare claim numbers. Limited information related to some individuals’ Medicare premium payments, including electronic funds transfer information (bank account number, account holder name, account type and bank routing number) or credit card information (card holder name, credit card account number, expiration date and CVV (Card Verification Value) number) may also have been on the laptop.
New West mentioned that the information has not been used inappropriately. It is offering one year of complimentary credit monitoring to affected individuals. New West is also taking steps to prevent this type of incident from occurring in the future. It is installing additional security on company laptops, increasing employee education, and strengthening data security policies.
According to the statement:
The privacy and security of members’information is a top priority. Moving forward, we are committed to taking steps to prevent this type of incident from occurring in the future. These steps include installing additional security on all company laptops, enhancing education for our employees, and strengthening our data security policies and practices.
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