Fired Arkansas Human Services Worker Mishandled Medicaid Clients' Personal Information, Report Says

By Hunter Field, Arkansas Advocate

November 16, 2022

An Arkansas Department of Human Services employee used her personal email account to handle protected information about Medicaid recipients, according to the agency.

The mishandled information included beneficiaries’ ID numbers, dates of birth, gender information, location data and flu diagnoses of 925 individuals, according to a news release.

The breached data did not include names, Social Security numbers, financial information or the clients’ full addresses.

DHS officials are notifying the affected Medicaid clients of the breach by mail, according to an announcement from the agency on Wednesday.

The department became aware in mid-September that the employee sent personal information about Medicaid beneficiaries from her state email to her Yahoo account.

DHS trains employees against using personal email to handle HIPAA-protected information, and a DHS spokesman confirmed that the employee was fired over the breach.

“The attachments consisted of Excel spreadsheets used to notify the Department of Health of the number of Medicaid clients who had been diagnosed with the flu,” a DHS news release stated.

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