The California Department of Health Care Services mistakenly included the Social Security numbers of 49,352 recipients of the state's Adult Day Health Care Service on the outside of envelopes mailed on Feb. 1, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
Officials from the department acknowledged the error on Feb. 8 (Lagos, San Francisco Chronicle, 2/9). The department said it did not learn of its mistake until Feb. 4.
DHCS first began notifying affected beneficiaries during the weekend (McIntosh, Sacramento Bee, 2/9). Recipients whose Social Security numbers were included on the envelopes should contact three credit reporting agencies to place a fraud alert on their files and visit a state-run website containing privacy protection tips, the department said (San Francisco Chronicle, 2/9).
A DHCS statement said there is no evidence that unauthorized parties have gained access to the Social Security numbers or inappropriately accessed beneficiary information.
The department attributed the breach to an error by DHCS personnel and a private vendor (Sacramento Bee, 2/9).