US healthcare conglomerate Kaiser notified millions of its members of a data breach earlier this month.
In a legally required notice filed with the U.S. government on April 12 but made public Thursday, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan confirmed that 13.4 million residents had information stolen in a data breach.
The advisory did not share the specific nature of the data breach, describing the incident only as “unauthorized access/disclosure” involving a network server.
U.S. organizations covered by the health privacy law known as HIPAA are required to notify the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services of any data breach involving protected health information, such as medical data and patient records. Kaiser also notified the California attorney general of the data breach, but provided no further details.
Kaiser spokeswoman Catherine Hernandez did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan is the parent organization of several entities that make up Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest health care organizations in the United States. The Kaiser Foundation Health Plan offers health insurance plans to employers and had 12.5 million members at the end of 2023.
The breach at Kaiser is listed on the Department of Health and Human Services website as the largest confirmed health-related data breach of 2024 to date.
It is unclear whether the breach at Kaiser is linked to the ongoing takeover of US health-tech giant Change Healthcare, which was hit by ransomware in February. Earlier this week, UnitedHealth Group, Change Healthcare’s parent company, said hackers stole sensitive health information from a “substantial proportion of people in America” but failed to provide a clear figure.
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