OHIO NATIONWIDE HEALTH PLANS ALERTS CUSTOMERS OF STOLEN DATA Nationwide Health alerts customers of stolen data - Business First of Columbus::

Nationwide Health alerts customers of stolen data

Files with personal information of more than 28,000 Nationwide Health Plans' customers was stolen, but the insurer said the possibility of identity theft is low.

Columbus-based Nationwide Health said a lockbox with tapes was stolen from Concentra Preferred Systems Inc.'s office in Weymouth, Mass., on Oct. 26. Concentra audits in-patient hospital claims for the insurer.

Nationwide spokesman Mike Switzer confirmed that social security numbers were stored on the stolen tapes, but did not know what other information was on them.

He said Nationwide Health was notified Nov. 10 that Concentra's office had been burglarized. On Jan. 15, it sent letters to customers whose personal information was on the tapes - most of whom are in Central Ohio - saying the chances of identity theft resulting from the incident were unlikely. It also offered customers a free year of credit monitoring services and identity theft insurance.

"(Nationwide Health was) told by the police that the thieves grabbed easily transportable items such as cash, computers and DVD players," Switzer said. "So the police say indications are they were looking for things of street value, not data value."

To read the data, the thieves would need a high-tech tape reader machine that is not available on the market, along with other software to decode the information, Switzer said.

"Its very unlikely that if the thieves tried to retrieve the data that they would be able to," he said.

Switzer said Nationwide Health was not required to notify its customers of the incident because the possibility of identity theft was so unlikely, but chose to "err on the side of caution."

Naperville, Ill.-based Concentra Preferred Systems helps reduce claim transaction costs for insurers in the health-care industry.

Nationwide Health Plans is an affiliate of Columbus-based Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. and has more than 98,200 customers, mostly in Central Ohio. Nationwide Mutual which provides auto, home and life insurance and has $158 billion in assets.