LANSING — A report this week revealed that a 2024 McLaren Health Care data breach potentially leaked the data of more than 740,000 patients.
The Michigan-based health system suffered a ransomware attack between July and August last year.
In a statement, McLaren spokesperson Dave Jones says that a third-party audit determined there was “unauthorized and unlawful access to portions of the system’s network”with some protected health information or personally identifiable information.
McLaren says that data may have included names, Social Security numbers, date of birth, health insurance information and medical information including billings and diagnoses.
Jones also said that “while there is no evidence of actual or attempted misuse of personal information as a result of the incident, McLaren has begun the process of notifying patients whose data may have been impacted by the event and offering complementary identity protection out of an abundance of caution.”
Jones says that McLaren is notifying impacted individuals through the mail. More information is available at mclaren.org/notice
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said after the initial breach that consumers should watch for suspicious contacts related to health insurance or medical providers.
These include a bill for services you didn’t receive, calls from debt collectors about medical bills that don’t exist, or if there are medical debt collection notices on your credit report that you don’t recognize.
Nessel also encourages those that have been notified of the breach to change their passwords for any medical accounts they have, check their explanation of benefits for errors and contact their bank and credit card companies.