Five months after hackers broke into health insurer Anthem Inc. files storing information for 80 million people, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association said Tuesday it will provide identity protection services to all eligible members next year.
The free ID protection will be provided to commercial and individual members of most BlueCross and BlueShield of Tennessee health plans, which cover nearly 3 million Tennesseans. Nationwide, the ID protection will be offered to 106 million Americans as part of the biggest such ID theft protection offering ever by a private business.
The Chicago-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, a national federation that represents the 36 independent, Blue Cross plans across America, said individual companies will contact customers directly to let them know how to obtain the services.
"For more than 85 years, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield brand has meant security and stability for the members we serve, and we are dedicated to putting our customers' privacy at the forefront of our efforts," said Scott P. Serota, the president and chief executive officer for the Blue Cross association. "This effort is part of our focus on applying cutting-edge security practices and protocols for Blue companies."
The services - which include credit monitoring, fraud detection and fraud resolution - will be available to eligible members for as long as they have a Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance policy.
In February following one of the biggest cyber attacks on any company, Anthem Inc., the biggest Blue Cross insurer, said it would offer free identity theft protection from AllClear ID for two years to current and former customers.
BlueCross of Tennessee made a similar offer for ID protection five years ago when 57 hard drives containing health records were stolen from one of BlueCross's former offices at the Eastgate Town Center. No one was ever charged with a crime and there was no evidence of any stolen data.
But the Chattanooga-based health insurer spent more than $16 million to notify members, encrypt its data and provide ID protection to anyone who might have been impacted.