June 3, 2019
Quest Diagnostics, one of the nation's largest medical labs, said a data breach involving a collections firm exposed sensitive personal data, including a limited amount of payment information, of up to 11.9 million patients.
American Medical Collection Agency, on May 14th, informed Quest Diagnostics and Optum360, a Quest contractor that it provides collection services to, that an unauthorized user accessed its web page. In a May 31 update, AMCA informed the companies that the breach involved personal patient data, including social security numbers, medical information, but not lab results. AMCA provides billing collections service to Optum360, which is a Quest contractor, according to a Quest spokesperson.
AMCA has not yet provided complete data to Quest or Optum360, including which patients data were released by the breach. Quest has not yet been able to verify the accuracy of AMCA's claims. The company however is taking the incident very seriously and has suspended using AMCA for collections. Quest is working with Optum360 to notify patients.
"We are committed to keeping our patients, health care providers and all relevant parties informed as we learn more," the spokesperson Rachel Carr, said in the email.
Topics: Bill Payment, Security, Technology Providers
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