![]() ![]() Josh Golin, of Watertown, said he spent hours on the phone with the insurer trying to get the authorizations and referrals for his 14-year-old daughter to see an allergist, and struggled for days to get answers. Some members said they were unable to use their insurance at all. ![]() The insurer cannot process claims or requests for prior authorization. However, Harvard Pilgrim’s website and many of its internal functions remain down. It also has been issuing temporary member ID cards, and distributed payments to providers that had been submitted before the attack. The insurer said it has repaired several functions in the two months since the attack, including the ability to check member eligibility. The spokeswoman also said that Harvard Pilgrim began alerting potentially affected members by mail starting June 15. Harvard Pilgrim has instead sought to inform members through employers, insurance brokers, press releases, and its website, and has made credit monitoring services available through a website for those wishing to enroll. The system outage has prevented the insurer from contacting members directly, “as contact information was not accessible,” the spokeswoman said. The data in the accessed files could contain a slew of patient information, the spokeswoman said, including names, addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, health insurance account information, Social Security numbers, provider taxpayer identification numbers, and medical history - such as diagnoses, treatment, dates of service, and provider names. In all, potential victims include those who are or were enrolled in Harvard Pilgrim Commercial or Medicare health plans since March 28, 2012. A spokeswoman for the insurer confirmed the figure. The next day, however, the insurer informed the US Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights that millions of people’s data potentially had been compromised. On May 23, the insurer disclosed that patient data had been stolen, but declined to publicly say how many members were affected. Harvard Pilgrim, part of the state’s second-largest health insurer Point32Health, first disclosed in mid-April that it had been the victim of a ransomware attack, affecting the systems it uses to service members, accounts, brokers, and providers. “I’ve never seen this happen with any company, nonetheless something as important as people’s health insurance. “There was no correspondence, and there still hasn’t been,” said Mark Dagostino, a writer and Harvard Pilgrim customer from Stratham, N.H. ![]()
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