Molina Healthcare is notifying members of a breach of protected health information (PHI) involving an employee of their vendor, CVS. In a letter dated September 17, they write:

This is to let you know that CVS, Molina Healthcare’s Over-the-Counter (OTC) benefits vendor, told us on 7/20/15 about a breach of your protected health information (PHI). This is to tell you about this incident and what you can do to protect yourself from potential harm.

On or about 3/26/15, a former CVS employee took PHI from CVS’ computers and sent it to his personal computer. CVS believes he did this to fraudulently obtain OTC products from CVS. Upon learning of this incident, CVS took prompt action to investigate this issue. No fraudulent use of your PHI has been found. The PHI involved in the breach is as follows: Full Name; CVS ID; CVS ExtraCare Health Card Number; Member ID; Rx Plan Number; Rx Plan State; Start Date; and End Date.

This may put you at risk for identity theft.

Huh? How? Unless they mean medical identity theft? But it seems they don’t mean medical identity, because they continue:

We think you should place a fraud alert on your credit file. A fraud alert tells creditors to call you before opening any new accounts.

You can read the full notification letter here.

I have no idea how these data types could be used for identity theft that would require a fraud alert or anything other than checking EOBs for a while. No date of birth and no social security number (unless CVS uses SSN for CVS ID or Molina Healthcare uses SSN for Member ID…?)

Update: This incident was subsequently reported to HHS as affecting 54, 203.