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February 27, 2024

Prospect Medical adds Cigna to list of insurers affected by 2023 data breach

SHAHRZAD RASEKH / CT MIRROR Waterbury Hospital is one of three facilities owned by Prospect Medical Holdings in Connecticut. The hospitals were hit with a cyberattack in August.

Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., owner of Waterbury, Manchester Memorial and Rockville General hospitals, recently disclosed that a massive data breach last summer also affected Cigna policyholders.

In a notice filed Jan. 31 with the attorney general of Massachusetts, Prospect Medical stated it discovered that the breach made Cigna policyholder information accessible to “an unauthorized party.” Previously, Prospect Medical had identified 29 insurers whose policyholder information may have been affected by the breach, but Cigna was not among them.

According to the filing, the unauthorized users had access to consumers’ sensitive information, including their names, Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, diagnoses, lab results, medications and other treatment information, health insurance information, dates of treatment, and financial information.

A spokesperson for Prospect Medical Holdings confirmed Tuesday that Cigna policyholders may have been affected by the breach. In response to this latest discovery, Prospect Medical said it sent out data breach notification letters to all individuals whose information was affected. 

According to the filing, Cigna provided policyholder information to Aquent, a Boston-based staffing company, which then provided the information to Prospect Medical. The breach occurred on Prospect Medical’s network and did not directly involve Aquent’s or Cigna’s network.

While the data breach occurred in August, and was disclosed in September, it appears that Prospect Medical’s investigation did not determine until recently that it had also affected Aquent and Cigna.

More than 110,000 Connecticut residents had their personal information exposed last year during a cyberattack of the three hospitals Prospect Medical owns in the state. The number of Cigna policyholders added to that list has not been disclosed.

The office of the attorney general of Massachusetts did not respond to a request for comment. The Connecticut attorney general’s office also did not respond to a request for comment.
 

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