Glitch mixes up Ga. Blue Cross mailings

ATLANTA, July 29 (UPI) -- A major Georgia health insurance provider is warning policyholders about the risk of identity theft posed by benefits letters being sent to wrong addresses.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia said about 202,000 routine explanation-of-benefits, or EOB, letters were sent to incorrect addresses last week and contain personal information that could, as a result, fall into the wrong hands.

"As soon as we became aware of the mailing error, we worked to determine the exact cause, and we have made changes to prevent it from happening again in the future," Blue Cross spokeswoman Cindy Sanders told the Atlanta (Ga.) Journal-Constitution Tuesday.

Sanders said some of the letters could include Social Security numbers as well as information about medical conditions.

Blue Cross said the problem was the result of a change in the computer system that was not properly tested and resulted in EOB letters being sent to other Blue Cross members.