Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ Loses Customer Data
January 29, 2008
I come home tonight to find letters addressed to myself, my wife and young children informing us how Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey lost our confidential personal information (name, address and social security number) and exposed my entire family to potential fraud and identity theft.
The letter also says: “We do not believe any of your medical data was on the computer.” That’s not definite. It’s possible, but they are not sure.
My wife and I are outraged. No explanation was given as to why an employee is taking home our confidential information on a laptop.
Careless procedures and a casual attitude have needlessly exposed my family to risk and extra burden now.
These large companies insist on collecting unnecessary information about you. A health insurance company has no need for any person’s social security number, period! The Social Security Number is for social security and tax reporting and is not a universal ID number. Now Horizon has carelessly lost the data and put 300,000+ people at risk.
I’ve seen this kind of sloppy behavior repeatedly at the mega brand companies I’ve worked with. The PR department says one thing. The Privacy Dept says another thing. Then the line managers ignore the policies because they’re under pressure to get their work done.
The Health Insurance companies bully us around and all we do is bend over and take it. I really wish our politicians would start investigating these shenanigans.
Related Links:
Updated 01/31/2008:
- A swiped Blue Cross laptop puts data at risk
- Legislators asking how Blue Cross lost laptop
- According to Horizon Public Relations…
Class action lawsuit! Don’t put up with this!
It’s illegal - always has been - for anyone to ask for your SSN unless they are with the SS Administration. It is specifically prohibited for use as an ID number. When will the government enforce its own laws?
You’re both wrong.
It’s not illegal to ask for the SSN. It’s also not illegal to require it for the purposes of distributing benefits.
Ironically, this is due to privacy legislation. Of course, I’m going to guess neither of you know a thing about the alt-ID programs insurance companies have implemented, so I’m going to guess you don’t know shit about HIPAA.
It’s not illegal. You’re mixing government and private agency rules.
Most government agencies are now banned from asking you for your SSN, unless they can cite a good reason to use the SSN. You’ll see it on the form — “we are asking for your SSN because bla bla bla, and your disclosure is mandatory/voluntary”.
However, it is not illegal (and never has been) for a private company to ask for your SSN. They can ask for anything they want. You are not required to give it to them, although they’re not required to do business with you either.
Eli, Sam, John, Milieu: Thank you for adding to the conversation. John, please let’s keep it civil and not slam opinions. Point here is to share thoughts (and frustrations), educate each other and figure out how to learn something from the experience.
Think we can all agree on the following:
1. Companies can ask for whatever they want. You as a consumer do not have to give more than you are comfortable with. But be prepared that the company can decline to do business with you.
2. Consumers need to be less casual about giving to much of their personal info away. Example: Last time I signed up for a discount card at the supermarket, the form asked me for SSN. I left it blank. Customer Service person told me I missed it. I said no I don’t give it out. That was all. I stuck to my guns, and she issued me the discount card.
3. Always ask for available alternatives. Many companies and banks can offer alternate unique id numbers to be used on the cards/accounts they issue — but only if you ask and sometimes require a written request.
4. Consumers should never trust that any company (or gov’t) can safeguard their personal information, no matter what the PR departments say. Policy and procedures often get bent by someone low on the pecking order who’s working hard to get his/her job done. (Arrogance and carelessness come into play here.)
The best defense is to stay reasonably informed, stay alert, and teach our children how to protect themselves.
Companies can ask for whatever they want. You as a consumer do not have to give more than you are comfortable with. But be prepared that the company can decline to do business with you.
That can be incredibly unfair to the individual. Many companies are shamefully adept at attempting to bully individuals into providing more information than they are comfortable with. Not to mention they do not always tell you the truth or acknowledge that they do not have a legal right to the information they are requesting, even when you tell them so. There must be some recourse for individuals in these situations. After all we’re not talking about a movie rental card, we’re talking about health insurance!
Can a company like Horizon deny you health insurance if you refuse to provide a social security number? Why do they really need to have social security numbers in the first place? They have proven without a doubt they cannot properly secure customer information, so in my opinion they should be barred from asking policy holders for social security numbers in the future.
Btw, does anyone have any information about filing a complaint against Horizon? This situation is appalling. They did not even bother to notify people via certified mail to make certain victims were aware their confidential information was leaked. To make matters worse the customer service number they established was gaving out false information yesterday, to who knows how many policy holders. It should be investigated whether they knowingly lied to customers in an attempt to placate them.
BCBS did give us an alternative number to replace our ss number sooo my question is why was my social in an employee’s laptop????
Social Securtiy numbers are submitted to the health insurance agency by YOUR employer or by the State, depending on your employment status whether it be actively working or retired. Therefore, when the socials are submitted to the insurance agency it is uploaded into all of the company’s systems, and yes that includes laptop computers. If you are retired or plan on retiring, then your Medicare id number on your Medicare card IS YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER!! When you wave your medicare card at a receptionist in the doctor’s office, he/she is seeing your social security number. When they submit their claims to Medicare, they are submitting under your social securtiy number. When you are on medicare and if you have a secondary insurance then your claims are ELECTRONICALLY submitted to the secondary insurance (through computers) via a medicare crossover file which is electronic transfer of the claims under your SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER. If you lose your medicare card, then guess what, you just put your social security number out there for anyone to see. Atleast insurance company’s like Horizon have security measures in place to protect this info. You wont see your social securtiy number on your Horizon ID card, and if someone did happen to find a lost id card and try to call Horizon customer service for info, there are HIPAA laws in affect to protect your private info. There are certain things that you must verify to be allowed to obtain information on the policy, and a Horizon rep is never, ever, EVER allowed to tell you what social securtiy number that they have on file for you or anyone on your policy. If you give the rep your social security number over the phone for whatever reason and it is wrong in Horizon’s systems then the rep will tell you that it is wrong and to go back to your employer or the state to verify what they have, but the rep will NEVER tell you the social security number that they have in their systems, even if it is wrong. So the next time you call your insurance company and are asked to verify information like your ID number on your card, your name, date of birth, address and telephone number, then dont get all pissy because you have to verify these things. Remember that it is for your own protection. If these HIPAA laws werent into affect then im sure that there would be more complaining because of the fact that some bum on the street found your id card and was able to call the insurance company and obtain your social security number and your address and therefore burn you a new one because they were able to commit theft or fraud against you. Yes, a laptop was stolen and yes it is partly due to irresponsibility on someone’s part, but i also did not hear mention that Horizon also offered all of these people credit fraud protection, all you had to do was call and activate it, so if someone did happen to try to use your social security number you would be notified and if anything happened that the person was successful, Horizon would cover it. Be thankful that you have health insurance and have the opportunity to have it. There are too many people out there who dont. Another thing you need to remember is that if something is not covered under your health insurance, it is not the insurance company’s fault that it isnt covered. It is your employer’s fault. They are the ones that chose the plan and what is or is not covered, and if you work for the state, then the state makes up these benefits, not Horizon. The insurance company only administers the benefits that they were told to administer. And if you did not receive a letter about the stolen laptop then you were not affected by it. If you did receive the letter then it is POSSIBLE that your info was on the laptop and all you had to do was call and someone could tell you definately YES or NO you were/werent affected. If you did not receive the letter, then dont cry about it because you definately werent affected. You being affected depends on what part of Horizon that laptop was in. There are numerous branches of Horizon and every single department is not affiliated. You have the Federal, State, Direct Access, Q-Blue, PPO, HMO, etc. Depending on what coverage you have would depend on if your info could have possibly been on that laptop.