[Dataloss] Ohio's Medicaid system revealing sealed adoption information

[Henry Brown]

http://www.ohio.com/news/ap?articleID=288711

A glitch in Ohio's troubled child-welfare system is revealing 
information from sealed adoption records, a data breach some child 
advocates say is a massive violation of confidentiality.

The data breach involves children who were adopted out of the 
foster-care system and now are enrolled in a children's health insurance 
program in 35 Ohio counties, said Dennis Evans, spokesman for the Ohio 
Department of Job and Family Services.

Those counties issue Medicaid cards through the new Statewide Automated 
Child Welfare Information System, which draws information from health 
records before adoptions, Evans said.

In some cases, when medical personnel use the number on the Medicaid 
cards to look up health records, the system emits sealed data such as a 
birth mother's name. That information is supposed to be secret, Evans said.

The state has not yet determined how many children are directly 
affected, although several counties have registered complaints. The 
agency is working to pinpoint the problem, Evans said.

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