HHS OCR breach portal (HIPAA breaches affecting 500 or more individuals) Primary notice
Posted on the HHS Office for Civil Rights breach portal with a submission date of Dec. 18, 2020.
- Organization as reported
- BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Inc., TN
- Entity type as reported
- Health Plan
- Category as reported
Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of information as reported
- Submission date
- Dec. 18, 2020
- Observed by BreachRecords
- 2026-10-18 16:15 UTC (revision 12439, row:3578)
- Archived copy
- Held in the private archive (provenance)
The covered entity (CE), BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, reported that an employee of its business associate (BA) was the victim of an email phishing scheme that affected the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 1,340 individuals. The ePHI involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers, health insurance information, diagnoses, and other treatment information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, and the media. In response to the breach, the BA implemented additional administrative, technical, and security safeguards to better protect PHI. All employees were retrained on the proper methods of detecting and responding to fraudulent email communications. OCR provided the CE with technical assistance.