American Indian Health & Services, Inc. Provides Notice Of Data Security Event

SANTA BARBARA, Calif., May 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — American Indian Health & Services, Inc. (“AIHS”) is providing notice to individuals of a recent incident involving personal information. To date, AIHS has not received any reports that personal information has been misused as a result of this incident.

What Happened?  On March 7, 2019, AIHS discovered a former AIHS employee forwarded certain AIHS emails to her personal email account.  While the individual was employed by AIHS at the time the emails were forwarded, because they were forwarded in a manner that conflicts with AIHS policies and procedures, AIHS immediately launched an investigation with the assistance of a third-party computer forensics expert. The investigation included reviewing the email account of this former employee to determine the information contained in the forwarded emails and to whom the information related.  The investigation determined the former employee forwarded certain emails between February 26, 2019 and March 6, 2019, some of which contained information relating to AIHS employees, patients and vendors.  Although we are unaware of any actual or attempted misuse of this personal information, we are providing this notice to individuals out of an abundance of caution. 

What Information Was Involved? The investigation in this matter confirmed that the following types of personal information may have been accessible as a result of the incident: patient name and information relating to billing such as health insurance/payor information, provider name, provider location, date of service, and amount paid/owed to AIHS for services rendered. To date, AIHS has not received any reports of the misuse of this information.

What is AIHS Doing?  AIHS takes this incident and the security of personal information seriously.  Upon learning of this incident, AIHS moved quickly to confirm whether personal information may have been affected by this incident, to identify the individuals related to this personal information, to provide them with notice of this incident, and to put in place identity theft protection services through ID Experts.  AIHS is reviewing its existing policies and procedures and reported this incident to law enforcement and state regulators, as required.  AIHS is also notifying potentially affected individuals via mail.  

What You Can Do?  AIHS encourages potentially impacted individuals to review their accounts, explanations of benefits, and credit reports for suspicious activity, and to report any suspicious activity to the affiliated institutions immediately.  AIHS is providing potentially impacted individuals with identity theft protection services through ID Experts® to provide you with MyIDCare™. MyIDCare services include: 12 months of credit and CyberScan monitoring and fully managed ID theft recovery services. With this protection, MyIdCare will help you resolve issues if your identity is compromised.

For More Information. Please write to AIHS at 4141 State Street, B-11, Santa Barbara, CA 93110 or visit AIHS’s website at www.aihscorp.org for more information. Potentially affected individuals may also consider the information and resources outlined below.

AIHS encourages potentially impacted individuals to remain vigilant against incidents of identity theft and fraud by reviewing their accounts, explanations of benefits, and credit reports for suspicious activity, and to report any suspicious activity to the affiliated institutions immediately. 

Under U.S. law, individuals with credit reports are entitled to one free credit report annually from each of the three major credit reporting bureaus. To order a free credit report, visit www.annualcreditreport.com or call, toll-free, 1-877-322-8228. Individuals may also contact the three major credit bureaus directly to request a free copy of their credit report. The credit reporting agencies may be contacted as follows:

The Federal Trade Commission can be reached at: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20580, www.identitytheft.gov, 1-877-ID-THEFT (1-877-438-4338); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The Federal Trade Commission also encourages those who discover that their information has been misused to file a complaint with them. You can obtain further information on how to file such a complaint by way of the contact information listed above. You have the right to file a police report if you ever experience identity theft or fraud.  Please note that in order to file a report with law enforcement for identity theft, you will likely need to provide some proof that you have been a victim.  Instances of known or suspected identity theft should also be reported to law enforcement and your state Attorney General.  This notice has not been delayed by law enforcement.      

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SOURCE American Indian Health & Services, Inc.