AMCA Data Breach May Continue to Affect Sunrise Medical Laboratories Patients

This year, it was revealed that a large data breach possibly exposed the personal information of around 20 million patients who had testing done at medical labs including Sunrise Medical Laboratories. Now, patients may be feeling the effects of that breach.

The target of the data breach was American Medical Collection Agency, a billing service used by dozens of healthcare providers. USA Today reports that important information like Social Security numbers and financial information may be been exposed.

The breach may have revealed billing information of patients of the following laboratories:

• Quest Diagnostics
• LabCorp
• Clinical Pathology Laboratories
• American Esoteric Laboratory
• CareCentrix
• Sunrise Medical Laboratories
• BioReference Labs/OPKO Health, Inc.
• Inform Diagnostics
• CBL Path
• Laboratory Medicine Consultants
• Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories
• Compunet Clinical Laboratories
• West Hills Hospital and Medical Center (United West Labs)

CPO Magazine explains that the data breach went undetected for over eight months. Once the data breach was discovered, AMCA and other companies reportedly waited weeks before telling the public about the possible breach to their information security.

USA Today goes on to explain that the exposure of such a range of personal information could make individuals particularly vulnerable. One patient interviewed by USA Today noted that parties who accessed his personal information could send tailored phishing emails that he might be likely to fall for, thinking they were relevant to his medical conditions and sent by legitimate sources. 

Another patient worried that exposure of his wife’s information could make it harder fro her to get health insurance in the future — he worried that she could be denied coverage based on tests she had taken.

USA Today explained that if the protections in the Affordable Care Act are eliminated, the issue of pre-existing conditions could be used to extort individuals. The Affordable Care Act was instituted in 2010, and prohibited an insurer from denying health insurance to someone with a pre-existing condition.

Arthur Caplan, Director of Medical Ethics at the New York University School of Medicine, told USA Today about this risk. He explained that this type of threat and fraud may become more common if the Affordable Care Act is done away with. A criminal could threaten an individual whose information was compromised, saying ‘“if you don’t pay me I’m going to tell your insurance company you have asthma,” or “if you don’t pay this ransom fee, I’m going to make sure your boss finds out that you are suffering from extensive chronic diseases.”’

Such threats could make individuals worried that their access to health insurance may be imperiled, or they may face high premiums. 

However, all that could change, leaving many individuals uninsured. The Department of Health and Human Services reported that between 19 and 50 percent of Americans under age 62 have some kind of preexisting condition.

CPO Magazine also describes another kind of fraud that could be committed with this information — criminals could possibly send patients fake medical bills for procedures they really had, demanding payment for the bills. Unfortunately, the effects of this data breach may be wide reaching, and could affect patients with tests done at Sunrise Medical Laboratories and other labs in a range of ways.

Join a Free AMCA Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you are a patient at LabCorp, Quest or another lab and you received notice that you were affected by the AMCA data breach, you may qualify to join this data breach class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.