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Health care records compromised in recent TRICARE data breach NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Dec. 1, 2011) – Science Applications International Corporation, a federal contractor working for TRICARE, reported in September the loss of backup tapes containing electronic health care records. Letters are being mailed from SAIC to affected military clinic and hospital patients regarding a data breach involving personally identifiable and protected health information. The lost data may include Social Security numbers, addresses and phone numbers, and some personal health data such as clinical notes, laboratory tests and prescriptions. There is no financial data, such as credit card or bank account information, on the backup tapes. The risk of harm to patients is judged to be low since retrieving the data on the tapes would require knowledge of, and access to, specific hardware and software and knowledge of the system and data structure. However, TRICARE Management Activity directed SAIC to provide credit monitoring and credit restoration services for one year for patients requesting them. If you have received this letter, information for requesting this service by mail is included with the SAIC letter. The monitoring service is provided by a company called ID TheftSmart. This letter also contains a membership number for this company. With this number you can register for the monitoring service online at https://www.idintegrity.com/. It is a five-to-10 minute five-step process. SAIC's Incident Response Center is available to answer your questions, including helping you with signing up for credit monitoring, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. eastern time. Concerned patients should call the response center toll free at (855) 366-0140 to ask questions and verify authenticity of the letter. For more information on the TRICARE Data Breach and the SAIC coverage plan go to http://www.tricare.mil/breach/. (For more news and information about the Nashville District, follow us on our Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube pages.) |
