Medicare Beneficiary Data Left in Hotel [View All]

Social Security numbers and other personal information for nearly 17,000 Medicare beneficiaries could have been compromised when an insurance company employee called up the data through a hotel computer and then failed to delete the file. An auditor for the Department of Health and Human Services' inspector general came across the information a few weeks later when using the same hotel computer in Baltimore, Medicare officials disclosed Friday.

Peter Ashkenaz, spokesman for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Service, said there is no evidence that the information fell into the wrong hands and was misused. However, the agency has instructed the insurance company, Humana Inc., to notify each of the beneficiaries involved. The Medicare incident comes just a month after the theft of a computer containing personal information about 26.5 million veterans.

The numbers in the Medicare case pale in comparison, but officials are sensitive to the public relations nightmare that the theft caused. Medicare officials said they will take aggressive actions against any plan or contractor that compromises the privacy of beneficiaries. The Humana customers are enrolled in the company's Medicare prescription drug plans.

Judy Holtz, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, said the auditor in April found on the hotel computer a spreadsheet that contained Social Security numbers, names, dates of birth and other personal information of the 17,000 beneficiaries. A Humana official said the employee had used the computer a month earlier. It was the second time that Humana's customer files had been compromised, Medicare officials said. In the other case, about 250 applications were stolen from an insurance agent's vehicle in Minnesota.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060603/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/medicare_personal_information_2