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Accellion Data Incident

Jun. 23, 2021

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) recently mailed letters to certain current and past members. These letters—and the below information—provide specific details about a recent incident involving Protected Health Information (PHI) as required by law.

What Happened? On April 21, 2021, we became aware that a third-party vendor, Accellion, Inc. (“Accellion”), used by one of our external service providers, was impacted by a cybersecurity incident between Dec. 21, 2020 and Jan. 15, 2021. Accellion’s file transfer platform, which was used by our external service provider, was targeted by an unauthorized individual. As a result of this attack, certain files present on the file transfer system may have been accessible to or accessed by the unauthorized individual.

What Information Was Involved? The files contained claim information which included member names, subscriber numbers, group numbers, claim numbers, dates of birth, medical record numbers and medical service information. Social Security Numbers were not included in the information.

What We Are Doing. Our service provider has made every effort to find out what caused this incident and has taken steps to reduce the risk of this happening again. They reported the incident to law enforcement and stopped using Accellion’s file transfer system.

What You Can Do. BCBSTX takes the confidentiality of our members’ data very seriously and we regret that this incident happened. We have no reason to believe that anyone has misused this information. However, there are steps you can take to guard against identity theft or fraud. If you receive or access explanation of benefits statements (EOBs) from BCBSTX, we recommend that you regularly review these statements. If you see any service that you did not receive, please call us at the number found on the statement or on your member identification (ID) card. If you do not receive or access EOBs, contact your provider or plan and request that they send to you a statement following the provision of any services under your name and ID number.

For More Information. If you believe that your PHI has been misused or have any questions regarding this information, please call the toll-free number listed on your member ID card. A representative is available to assist you.