Stolen Laptop Contained Data on S.C. Health Insurance Pool Members

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A laptop stolen from an auditor’s car contained the personal information of more than 3,400 members of the South Carolina Health Insurance Pool, an attorney hired by the pool told The Associated Press on Monday.

The password-protected laptop, stolen Oct. 16, contained names and Social Security numbers of 3,432 people who were part of the high-risk pool in 2011 and 2012, said Cynthia Hutto of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough.

It was stolen from a car outside the home of a DeLoach & Williamson auditor. The Richland County Sheriff’s Department was called Oct. 17, and the pool was notified Oct. 21. The laptop was never recovered. Officials of the pool are unaware of any actual or attempted fraud resulting from the theft.

Letters notifying the pool’s affected members did not go out until Dec. 18. Hutto said that’s because it took time to determine what information was stolen, hire a company to notify members and set up a call center and credit monitoring for them.

“First, we had to determine what type of information was included,” she said, adding that “getting the pieces in place” also included getting members’ addresses.

DeLoach & Williamson is covering that cost, Hutto said. She did not have a figure.

The pool was created by the Legislature in 1989 for South Carolina residents unable to find insurance due to a medical condition. Of the 3,432 affected members, 91 have addresses outside the state — 25 of them in North Carolina.

It is unclear how many total people currently belong to the pool, a nonprofit funded by all health insurers in the state and governed by a board.