DHS warns of privacy violation

Officials at the Department of Human Services said Monday that a small number of clients were affected this year by a computer error that labeled envelopes with incorrect addresses.

A labeling error affected notices that informed patients and their guardians about changes to their plan of care. Letters were meant for people with developmental disabilities, and they would have been mailed between May 17 and July 25.

The agency selfreported the violation of federal medical privacy laws to its Office of Inspector General in July and the software error was corrected the next day.

DHS spokeswoman Debra Martin said the number of clients who could have been affected was limited in scope, about 813, but she said there's no way to know for sure. The error caused a second address line that was not associated with the client to be printed on mailing labels. The error was corrected on July 25.

"As a result of this computer error, DDS clients may have received information not belonging to them, their information may have been mistakenly sent to another person, or both possibilities may have occurred," the agency said in a statement.

"It is also possible that no information was affected by the computer error. However, out of an abundance of caution we are notifying all persons who received a Plan of Care change notice between these dates of the possibility their information was compromised."

No Social Security Numbers were included in the notices, but DHS said the notices would have included the following information:

• Client name.

• Address.

• DHS case number.

• Medicaid client ID number.

• Plan of care number.

• An explanation that the person is authorized to receive Medicaid Home and CommunityBased Waiver Services.

• Name of the provider or provider company.

• A description of the type of service that has been authorized, including beginning/ending dates and the number of units approved.

People with client questions or concerns are urged to call Programs Process Administrator Sheila Bowen at 405-5226888, toll-free at 1-866521-3571 or by email to HIPAABreachInfo@ okdhs.org.

To protect against possible identify theft, DHS encourages its Developmental Disabilities Services clients to contact the three national credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian or TransUnion.