WASHINGTON – Federal health officials are facing scrutiny after a government database inadvertently made healthcare workers’ Social Security numbers available to the public, according to an investigation published Thursday by the Washington Post.
The security breach involved a Medicare database that fed information into a physician lookup tool launched last year by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The directory was designed to assist elderly patients in locating medical providers in their area.
According to the Post’s findings, the compromised database could be accessed by anyone and contained sensitive personal information including Social Security numbers that were connected to healthcare providers’ names.
Officials with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have not yet provided a response regarding the data exposure incident.
