Centene, a St. Louis-based payer, is searching for six missing hard drives that contain protected health information of approximately 950,000 individuals.
The six hard drives contain information of individuals who received laboratory services from 2009 to 2015, including names, addresses, birth dates, Social Security numbers, member ID number and health information. There is no financial or payment information stored on the hard drives, according to the payer.
Centene noticed the hard drives were missing when they were unaccounted for in an inventory of IT assets. The hard drives were part of a data project that used laboratory results to improve health outcomes.
The payer does not believe the information has been inappropriately used but has launched an ongoing search "out of abundance of caution and in transparency," according to a media notice.
More articles on data breaches:
California hematologist reports breach affecting 1,300 patients
8 CIO concerns for 2016
St. Luke's Cornwall breach stems from stolen thumb drive