Workers Comp Medical Data Privacy – My Own Experience
Is Workers Comp medical data private? An even better question – Are health records secure?
I had always thought that all health records including workers comp medical data were very secure. I have now received three notices from networks I did not know existed concerning a breach of health data.
The third medical data hack notice within the last year arrived on Monday with a notice of a shocking amount of data released – see the scan at the end of this article. One part of the notice that was more than disturbing was covered in this passage:
Other personal data such as Social Security Number, driver’s license or state ID number, or other ID number.
I was advised the data breach was discovered in March – now five months later. According to the HIPPA Journal, the ransomware attack was discovered in February 2024.
If you would like to read more about the medical data breach, follow the link to the article. I was advised to use the Annual Free Credit Report website and I could sign up for a free two-year credit monitoring service. The free service signup required a phone call and not online – very strange.
Credit Karma and Credit Sesame cover credit profiles with less work than using Annual Free Credit Reports.
I will not identify the healthcare network involved due to legalities. My only gripe remains (as in the first two health system data breaches) – how does my data end up in this “behind the curtain” network?
You may receive one of these notices as according to the health network –
that the breach could potentially involve the data of up to 1 in 3 Americans
Workers Comp Medical Data Privacy vs. Multiple PPO Layers
Workers Comp medical data privacy was likely sacrificed with the data breach. When I was in charge of choosing the workers comp PPO providers and now consulting on the choice, I was always concerned that the more layers of networks in place, the more likely the data ended up with excessive exposure.
The concern came from my IT background where my job was to search for data breach weak points in systems. The job existed long before the internet. The data contained car loan info.
Bottom Line
Keeping Workers Comp medical data private becomes even more important with one of the largest medical data breaches in history. Many more networks need to heed this advice with three or four networks involved just to process one medical bill.
