St. Luke’s vendor experiences data breach. Thousands of Idaho patients may be affected
Tens of thousands of St. Luke’s Health System patients’ data might be vulnerable after a cybersecurity incident involving Kaye-Smith, one of the system’s business vendors, in May.
In a Wednesday news release, St. Luke’s announced that a vendor handling statement processing and billing services experienced a data breach. The health system became aware of the breach on July 6.
“We have identified 31,573 individuals whose records may have been impacted by the vendor data breach,” St. Luke’s spokesperson Christine Myron told the Idaho Statesman in an email. She said no St. Luke’s networks were affected.
There is “no evidence” that the compromised information has been “misused” at this point, according to the news release. Myron said Kaye-Smith and St. Luke’s are both “actively monitoring for any indication of misuse of St. Luke’s patient information.”
The news release said the stolen information could have included patients’ names, addresses, ID numbers, dates of birth, last five digits of Social Security numbers, descriptions, dates and locations of services, provider names and patient account numbers. The breach also provided access to amounts billed for services, outstanding balances, payment due dates and payment account statuses.
The health system said it has “expedited” the process of informing patients. Myron said St. Luke’s was not able to notify people immediately because it was investigating which individuals and records the breach affected. She said St. Luke’s has worked to inform patients “as quickly as we could safely do so.”
Patients will receive a letter in the mail and will be entitled to complimentary identity theft protection, 12 months of credit and CyberScan security monitoring, and a $1,000,000 insurance reimbursement policy, according to the release.
A call center will be available starting Thursday at 4 p.m. to answer questions about the services. The help line will be available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday at 833-423-2976.
This story was originally published July 27, 2022 at 7:06 PM.
