Excellus Health Plan

Excellus Health Plan, Inc. has agreed to pay $5.1 million to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and to implement a corrective action plan to settle potential violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules related to a breach affecting over 9.3 million people. Excellus Health Plan is a New York health services corporation that provides health insurance coverage to over 1.5 million people in Upstate and Western New York. On September 9, 2015, Excellus Health Plan filed a breach report stating that cyber-attackers had gained unauthorized access to its information technology systems. Excellus Health Plan reported that the breach began on or before December 23, 2013, and ended on May 11, 2015. The hackers installed malware and conducted reconnaissance activities that ultimately resulted in the impermissible disclosure of the protected health information of more than 9.3 million individuals, including their names, addresses, dates of birth, email addresses, Social Security numbers, bank account information, health plan claims, and clinical treatment information. OCR’s invest