Business
Patient, doctor data stolen in Arizona
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 8, 2005
The personal information of 57,000 members of BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona and 3,000 physicians and clinicians who treated them has been compromised after a safe containing backup tapes was stolen on June 29 from the offices of Arizona Biodyne, The Associated Press reported on July 13.
It's unclear whether the thief knew what was in the tapes, which included the social security numbers, addresses and patient histories of some patients. Arizona Biodyne, a Phoenix-based affiliate of Magellan Health Services that manages behavioral health for the Blues plan, began notifying people whose information was stolen on July 8. A spokeswoman for Arizona Biodyne told the AP that it took more than a week for it to start alerting people because a copious amount of information was stored on the tapes.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2005/08/08/bibf0808.htm.
