Mercer Loses Personal Information on 6,000 DCH Health System Employees
The confidential information included an encrypted disk and hard-copy documents containing Social Security numbers and personal information.
The pension documents had been mailed to a Mercer employee from Mercer’s Birmingham, Alabama offices on March 2, but disappeared after they reached their destination in Louisiana. Mercer did not notify DCH until March 22 that a package of documents containing retirement benefit information had disappeared.
The package’s tracking data indicated that it had been
delivered to the addressee’s building, but the intended
recipient never received it.
The potential security breach could affect anyone on the
payroll in 2006 at DCH Regional Medical Center, Northport
Medical Center or Fayette Medical Center. DCH employees
were notified of the security breach Thursday, and all
other parties who could be at risk of identity theft –
retirees, former vested participants in the pension plan
and surviving spouses of those participants – have been
mailed a letter.
According to the news report, neither Mercer nor DCH knew
of any personal information that had been accessed or
illegally misused; however, Mercer said it is covering the
cost of monitoring the affected parties for possible
identity theft for a year.
Additionally all affected parties have been told how to
request a free copy of their credit reports.