Nearly 1 million now identified in Tenn. BlueCross hard drive theft

As of April 2, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee (BCBST) had identified 998,422 current and former members whose personal information was included in the theft of 57 hard drives in October 2009 at the payor’s Eastgate location.

As of the last update in January, BCBST estimated 500,000 patients' data had been breached.

According to an update from BCBST, 550,873 notifications have been sent to members indicating that their personal information was included on the stolen hard drives. The total number of members includes an additional 447,549 current and former members recently identified in the Tier 1 category, meaning members’ names, addresses, BlueCross member ID numbers and/or dates of birth were included in the stolen content.

Those 447,549 Tier 1 members began to receive their notification letters beginning last week. “As of April 2, there has been no documented incident of identity theft or credit fraud of BlueCross members as a result of this incident,” BCBST stated.

The 238,589 members in the Tier 3 category – confirmed as having their name, address, BlueCross member ID number, diagnosis, social security number and/or date of birth included in the stolen hard drives – have been sent a notification, according to BCBST.

Of the 312,284 current and former members identified in the Tier 2 category (name, address, BlueCross member ID number, date of birth and/or diagnosis), 146,612 subscribers have been identified as requiring a notification letter be sent with details of the hard drive theft and remediation services offered to them and their family members through BlueCross.

Members who have questions or want more information are advised to call the BlueCross Eastgate Response Customer Call Center at 1-888-422-2786.

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