Billing vendor: Data breach could impact over 200K CoxHealth patients

CoxHealth patients may be receiving a letter in the mail soon about a potential data breach.

One of the hospital system's billing vendors, Intellihartx, LLC, was among the companies impacted by the Fortra GoAnywhere "zero-day" breach earlier this year. Intellihartx estimates that about 203,000 CoxHealth patients may have been affected, and is mailing out notices.

The breach included patient medical billing and insurance information such as name, address, date of birth, social security number and diagnosis.

"It should be noted that analysts arrived at that number out of an abundance of caution. In the forensic review, analysts were not able to limit the scope with absolute certainty," CoxHealth said in a statement. "So, to be safe, (Intellihartx) and their forensic auditors are considering any folders that were breached as potential points of risk."

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Fortra is a cybersecurity company, and its application GoAnywhere is used to securely transfer files over a network. According to Fortra's website, GoAnywhere is used by companies like KwikTrip, Northwestern University and Braum's Ice Cream.

The vendor is offering complimentary access to Experian IdentityWorks identity theft protection for 12 months, and patients with questions may call Intellihartx's toll-free assistance line at 833-901-4622.

Susan Szuch is the health and public policy reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on Twitter @szuchsm. Story idea? Email her at sszuch@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Some CoxHealth patients affected by large-scale data breach