Practice Management Alert

WellPoint, based in Indiana, has come under scrutiny by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal for allegedly compromising the financial and health information of 470,000 people across the country, affecting Anthem and WellPoint customers in California, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Wisconsin. That number also includes 5,600 Connecticut residents, which caught the attention of the state's attorney general.

This latest breach marks WellPoint's third -- and largest -- in three-and-a-half years, according to the Indianapolis Star. The company blames this breach, which involved the online application process used by people shopping for individual health insurance, on an outside vendor.

Blumenthal wrote to WellPoint asking for information on how the breach occurred, what's being done to protect those affected, and how to prevent future incidents, he said in a statement. "This information breach is only the latest in a disturbing series of cases where nonpublic personal information has been subjected to unauthorized access," Blumenthal said in his statement. WellPoint should provide affected consumers with two years of credit monitoring services and at least $25,000 of identity-theft protection, Blumenthal said.