Unity: Portable health drive with info on 41,000 members missing
SAUK CITY, Wisconsin — On December 12, 2013, Unity Health Plans Insurance Corporation received a report that a portable computer hard drive containing limited information for a subgroup of Unity members was missing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy. The School of Pharmacy had this information as part of a benefits program evaluation. The disappearance was reported to the police and immediately investigated. The search for the hard drive and the investigation by the police are ongoing.
We are sorry this happened and want to provide pertinent information concerning the occurrence along with the steps we are taking to minimize any potential impact.
The hard drive did not contain the name, street address, Social Security Number, credit card, banking or financial information of any Unity member.
The information on the hard drive included some protected health information relating to certain prescription drugs. The information on the hard drive was limited to the Unity member number, date of birth, city of residence, name of drug, and date of service, if any. We have identified 41,437 members who may have been affected. We are notifying each of those members by letters mailed January 29, 2014.
We have no reason to believe the hard drive was stolen to gain access to member information or that this information has been accessed or misused in any way.
Both Unity and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy are undertaking comprehensive reviews of this breach of policy and are instituting information and re-education initiative to ensure that all employees protect member information at all times. We take our responsibility to protect member information very seriously.
Additionally, we have partnered with ID Experts®, a leader in identity theft protection services with extensive experience in this field. Through ID Experts, the affected members will be able to enroll in a one-year identity theft recovery offering. This offering will be fully covered by Unity.
Members with questions regarding the incident or the letter they received can contact ID Experts for assistance at (888) 738-3786 from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. CST.
The notification to members, the federal Department of Health and Human Services, the general public through a news release and posting on the clinic and hospital’s Web sites are being made pursuant to the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009.
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