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Six Missing HDDs Contain Health Information of Nearly a Million Patients (corporate-ir.net)

Posted by Soulskill on from the your-insurance-premiums-at-work dept.

Lucas123 writes: Health insurer Centene Corp. revealed that it is looking for six HDDs with information on 950,000 customers that went missing during a data project that was using laboratory results to improve the health outcomes of patients. The drives not only contain sensitive personal identification information, such as addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers, but they also contain health information. "While we don't believe this information has been used inappropriately," said Michael Neidorff, CEO of Centene.

1 of 87 comments (clear)

  1. Killing People by Etherwalk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you compile information into huge databases, this is what you can expect. Personally, I want all my medical records on paper charts stored in my doctor's office. Unless you agree to have your information published on the internet, don't accept electronic records. I assume that in this specific case the ssd's were lost. Even if they end up on eBay, the new owners will most likely clear the old data.

    That policy choice would kill a lot of people because it would prevent data mining to learn how to generate better health outcomes.

    Trade offs.