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HARTFORD, Conn. — The Connecticut Well being Insurance coverage Alternate didn’t report back to state regulators at the least 44 incidents during which shoppers’ personally identifiable info was breached together with one incident that impacted greater than 1,000 folks, the state’s auditors revealed in a brand new report.
The Auditors of Public Accounts repeatedly audits state companies. The report, issued Tuesday, discovered 44 breaches of shopper knowledge from July 2017 via March 2021. A type of incidents concerned one phishing rip-off which affected 1,100 shoppers.
The report mentioned one of many Alternate’s contractors accounted for 34 of the breaches. 5 different entities had been answerable for the remaining ten breaches.
State legislation requires that each one quasi-public companies promptly notify the Auditors of Public Accounts and the State Comptroller of any breach of safety. The Alternate, which operates Entry Well being CT, didn’t do this in these instances, auditors mentioned.
Along with rising the prospect of identification theft for the people who had their knowledge compromised, the auditors mentioned the state was compelled to pay for two-year safety monitoring for shoppers who skilled a breach.
Within the report, the Alternate mentioned they monitor “vendor compliance with safety necessities and is implementing extra protocols to observe compliance and enhance vendor safety practices. The Alternate requires any vendor inflicting a breach to cowl the price of two years of safety monitoring for shoppers who skilled a breach.”
In a press release to FOX61, Entry Well being CT mentioned it’s dedicated to “defending the safety of the buyer info utilized in its operations.”
“In a current audit, it was recognized that 44 breaches that had been reported to HHS and the Connecticut AG weren’t filed with the Auditors and Comptroller,” the assertion mentioned. “Entry Well being CT (AHCT) instantly filed copies of the stories beforehand filed with the AG and HHS with the Auditors and Comptroller to appropriate the error.”
The assertion continued: “Moreover, AHCT has regularly labored with its distributors, together with its name middle vendor, in addition to scanning and doc processing distributors and mailing distributors to create insurance policies and procedures to take care of the safety of PII and Protected Well being Info (PHI). AHCT additionally has insurance policies and procedures in place for its personal workers, conducts annual privateness and safety coaching for workers and contractors and requires distributors to coach their workers and adjust to all AHCT necessities.”
Different objects within the report took the company to activity for the way it awarded some contracts to a sole supply. Auditors additionally mentioned the Alternate didn’t adjust to different state buying insurance policies that require buy orders to be accepted earlier than companies are acquired.
“The Alternate has refined its buying processes to make sure compliance with buying insurance policies and procedures, and has applied the usage of a brand new requisition system to forestall irregularities or noncompliance,” mentioned the company’s response within the report.
Auditors additionally mentioned the Alternate additionally didn’t submit annual and quarterly stories to the governor’s workplace. The company blamed staffing points and mentioned the stories have been correctly submitted since December 2020.
Doug Stewart is a digital content material producer at FOX61 Information. He will be reached at dstewart@fox61.com.
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