Utah Medicaid Hacked

The Utah Department of Health has begun investigating a data breach during which it believes data from approximately 24,000 Medicaid claims was hacked.

The state’s Department of Technology Services notified DOH the evening of April 2 of the breach of a server on March 30 that houses Medicaid claims. “DTS had recently moved the claims records to a new server, and hackers believed to be operating out of Eastern Europe were able to circumvent the server’s multi-layered security system,” according to a DOH statement.

Now, DTS is trying to determine how many Medicaid recipients are affected and the types of data breached. Data typically stored on the servers includes name, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, physician’s names, national provider identifiers, tax identification numbers and procedure codes for billing, according to the state. The technology services department also is checking every server in the state government to ensure proper security mechanisms are in place.

The health department will notify affected individuals by mail but for now is advising Medicaid recipients to monitor their credit and bank accounts. The department will provide free credit monitoring services to clients whose Social Security numbers were compromised.