UnitedHealth, the largest health insurance company in America, said hackers broke into their systems and stole personal and health information about a large number of Americans in February of this year. UnitedHealth initially stated it may involve information about “a substantial portion of the American people.”
UnitedHealthcare insures 2.4 million Georgia residents and claims to have contracts with 28,000 Georgia providers and 140 Georgia hospitals.
While UnitedHealth states it does not know exactly how many people were affected, they are investigating and are trying to determine if in addition to patient data, copies of actual medical records were stolen.
The US Government Department of Health and Human Services has opened a federal investigation into the data breach because patient information is protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Stay tuned for more.