An employee at MNsure, Minnesota's new online health insurance exchange, accidentally distributed confidential information about more than 2,400 insurance agents.
MNsure officials acknowledged mishandling private information. They said the employee sent an e-mail to the office of an Apple Valley insurance broker on Thursday afternoon that contained Social Security numbers, names, business addresses and other identifying information.
The employee realized her mistake and immediately called the broker, Jim Koester. Then a MNsure security manager called to walk Koester and his assistant through the process of deleting the file from their computer hard drives. Koester told the Star Tribune he willingly complied but was unnerved by what happened.
"The more I thought about it, the more troubled I was," he said. "What if this had fallen into the wrong hands? It's scary. If this is happening now, how can clients of MNsure be confident their data is safe?"
MNsure officials said the mistake was quickly resolved and was their first security breach. MNsure's online marketplace, which launches Oct. 1, is the main vehicle for implementing federal health care changes. People will be able to comparison-shop among various health insurance options, with federal tax subsidies available to help the uninsured and underinsured get coverage.
Users of the exchanges will have to provide sensitive information, including Social Security numbers. The information will be sent to a federal hub to verify such things as citizenship and household income. The privacy of confidential data has been a longtime concern for some skeptics of the exchange.Read the rest of the story HERE.
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2 comments:
I happen to know that Black Turtle in Layton, UT has hired many drug addicts, and those his histories of criminal activities to man the phones with these exchanges. They will have access to our personal info. I know that because several in my children's birth family were bragging on line they and their friends got jobs there. (I try to keep tabs on where these people are for the safety of my children). Full bennies, 11.65 an hour. And I'm sure one of the perks will be paid time off when they are back in the Farmington jail. gee, I've got warm fuzzies over this. Ellie
Reports have been all along that training and screening of exchange employees have been insufficient and shoddy.
This is our personal information folks. if this mishap happened here and was reported by a conscientious insurance broker, one has to wonder how many other incidents are occurring that aren't being reported?
When it comes to the Government handling our information and our 'Right to Privacy', I would hope that Employees would be thoroughly SCREENED and TRAINED. It appears that this is not the case.
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