Privacy Digest

Georgia investigates loss of 2.9M Medicaid records: "A disk containing 2.9 million records of Georgia residents that belonged to the state's Medicaid contractor, Affiliated Computer Services, has been lost while being moved from one facility to another.

The disk, which state officials said was shipped March 22, was on its way from Georgia to a contracting facility in Maryland. ACS did not learn the disk was missing until April 3, said David Shapiro, a company spokesman.

The Dallas-based contractor subsequently notified state officials that the disk was missing on April 9, said Dena Brummer, a Georgia Community Health Department spokeswoman.

Shapiro declined to name the shipping company used, other than to say it is a major carrier.

The disk contained names, addresses, birth dates, and Social Security and Medicaid identification numbers of people on Medicaid and PeachCare, the state's child health care plan, Brummer said.

Shapiro would not say whether the data was encrypted."

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