Business
Illinois Blues fire accused ID thief
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Nov. 15, 2004
An employee of Chicago-based BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois was fired after being accused of stealing information relating to patients' identities, including names and Social Security numbers, and giving them to cohorts outside the company in a scam to illegally buy cellular telephones.
The actions of the employee, whom the company would not identify, were uncovered by the payer's special investigations department in conjunction with several state and federal law enforcement agencies, according to a memo to Blues employees by Ray McCaskey, president and CEO of Health Care Service Corp., the insurer's parent.
Confidential information for about 60 plan members was taken from claim forms by the employee and given to others as part of the fraud, according to Tony Rau, a plan spokesman. All of those members have been contacted by the company, he said.
The Blues plan itself is not under investigation, he said.
In his Oct. 22 memo to employees, McCaskey said the company had "enhanced our procedures to protect the privacy of our members' financial information."
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2004/11/15/bibf1115.htm.
