Lora Pabst reports:
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, the state’s largest health insurer, accidentally published a customer’s personal medical information in a handbook prepared for 95,000 members of a popular health care plan, according to the woman’s attorney.
The unnamed woman filed suit in Hennepin County District Court this week, accusing Blue Cross of violating the Minnesota Health Records Act and breaching her privacy by disclosing her name and providing confidential information about her medical treatment. While Blue Cross did not describe any procedures she may have received, the company disclosed she had been a patient at the Bemidji Sameday Surgery Center, according to the lawsuit.
[…]
Tanick said Blue Cross sent his client a letter last year, notifying her that her personal information was mistakenly published in 400 copies of a pamphlet and in 95,000 copies of a member handbook. A page from the handbook, submitted with the lawsuit, shows that the woman’s member ID and claims information were used to illustrate the company’s website. Later, an acquaintance of the woman told her they had seen her name in a Blue Cross document, Tanick said.
Read more in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. Because there is no un-ringing this bell, what do you think should be the result of the lawsuit? BlueCross has changed the woman’s insurance ID number. Will a court rule that unless she can show tangible harm or injury, she has no case?