Wellpoint says some patient info disappeared: NYT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wellpoint Inc., a managed care firm, has begun notifying 75,000 members of its Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield unit in New York that a compact disc holding their vital medical and other personal information had disappeared, The New York Times reported.

The information was on an unencrypted disc that a subcontractor recently sent to Magellan Behavioral Services, a company in Avon, Conn., that specializes in monitoring and coordinating mental health and substance abuse treatments for insurance companies.

Empire has begun notifying affected consumers by mail that their records -- including their names, Social Security numbers, health plan identification numbers and description of medical services back to 2003 -- had been lost.