Were You Affected by the LabCorp Data Breach?

A breach of cybersecurity at a third-party collections company known as the American Medical Collections Agency (AMCA) was responsible for a LabCorp data breach that reportedly occurred between Aug. 1, 2018, through March of this year.

The LabCorp data breach compromised the prsonally identifiable information of 7.7 million lab patients, USA Today reports. In addition to potentially leaking information about insurance billing codes, bank account and credit card information as well as social security numbers may have also been hacked.

The LabCorp data breach was just the “tip of the iceberg” in terms of patients affected by AMCA—a collections agency used by a number of clinical laboratories and medical centers. Quest Diagnostics—a provider of medical testing services—has released information through a filing with the security exchange commission that the breach might have led to 12 million patient records being affected.

While the AMCA has offered restitution in the form of free credit monitoring for two years, the fallout could be huge for the agency and the individuals in the hacker’s crossfire.

In an article posted by Health IT Security in June, it was noted that AMCA had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as it faced enormous costs related to the security breach. The source is noted to have said that “The company has spent $3.8 million to mail over 7 million individual notices to individual breach victims.” In addition to this expense, another $400,000 was outlaid to hire information technology experts to assist with the process of responding to the data breach incident.

In a report by Advisory Board posted in August, twenty-one total companies reported that they had been affected by the AMCA data breach including LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics. The companies affected by the data breach are listed below and are believed to have led to the compromise of records for 24.4 million patients:

• American Esoteric Laboratories;
• Arizona Dermatopathology;
• Austin Pathology Associates;
• BioReference Laboratories/Opko Health;
• Carecentrix;
• CBLPath;
• Clinical Pathology Associates;
• CompuNet Clinical Laboratories;
• Inform Diagnostics;
• LabCorp;
• Laboratory Medicine Consultants;
• Laboratory of Dermatology ADX;
• Natera;
• Pathology Solutions;
• Penobscot Community Health Center;
• Seacoast Pathology;
• South Texas Dermatopathology;
• Sunrise Medical Laboratories;
• Quest Diagnostics/Optum360;
• Western Pathology Consultants; and
• West Hills Hospital and Medical Center/United WestLabs

The Worries Behind Medical Records Data Breaches

In addition to the typical worries behind any data breach involving social security numbers and bank and credit card account numbers, the AMCA data breach is unique in that it potentially involved the diagnostic insurance codes of millions of people. As indicated by the USA Today article, one of the biggest fears for many is how available information about pre-existing conditions they harbor might be.

Under the Affordable Care Act, it is illegal to deny insurance coverage to individuals because of such conditions or raise rates on them as well. The ACA has faced numerous challenges in recent years and fears that it could be dismantled are high.

Furthermore, patient advocates say an exposure of diagnostic information could expose patients to a risk of extortion from criminals who get their hands on that information.

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.