Centene Corporation Announces Six Missing Hard Drives
Peach State Health Plan’s parent company Centene Corp. has launched a widespread internal investigation at its offices to search its six missing hard drives, which supposedly consists of sensitive personal data associated with 950,000 people. These people obtained laboratory services from 2009 to 2015. The data in the hard disks comprise name, address and date of birth, along with social security number, member ID number and information relating to health.
The website of the St. Louis-based company reveals that the company operates with 4.8 million people across 23 states. Georgians belonging to low-income group, enrolled in Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids, receive managed care services from Peach State Health Plan of Centene. The information regarding the missing hard drives was given to the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) on Monday. The DCH is responsible for supervising the Medicaid and PeachCare programs.
Meanwhile, the DCH has revealed that Centene is not disclosing whether any Georgians are among the people whose personal information has been lost due to the missing hard drives. The department revealed that till December 2015, a Peach State plan had 386,089 people enrolled in it. Furthermore, the company said in a press release that the missing hard drives did not contain any financial or payment related information.
“Centene takes the privacy and security of our members’ information seriously. While we don’t believe this information has been used inappropriately, out of abundance of caution and in transparency, we are disclosing an ongoing search for the hard drives,” said Michael F. Neidorff, Chairman and CEO of Centene.
The hard disks contained information regarding a project that involved improving health results of the members by using lab outcomes. Neidorff revealed that all the individuals involved and all the appropriate regulatory agencies are being notified, while the company continues to search the hard drives.