VIVA Health Reports Data Breach Affecting Thousands of Members

On August 27, VIVA Health learned there had been an incident. A file on their website leaked personal health information, which had been publicly accessible from June 14 to August 27. When the company learned of the security breach, they removed the file from their website, along with informing state and federal officials. Importantly for members, the file did not contain highly sensitive data such as Social Security numbers, addresses, birthdates, or banking information. Nevertheless, the file did include:

• Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers
• Member IDs
• Group Numbers
• County of Residence
• Authorization numbers (August/September 2024)
• Some information about previous authorization requests

Overall, 4,945 people were affected by the breach to date, there has been no indication of misuse of protected information.

What VIVA Health Is Doing To Remedy The Problem​

VIVA Health is taking measures to address the situation:

• They have sent letters to everyone affected.

• They are providing one year of free credit monitoring.

• They instructed members to:

• Review their Explanation of Benefits (EOB) statements
• Place a fraud alert on their credit report
• Monitor accounts for any suspicious activity

The deadline to enroll in credit monitoring is September 30, 2026.

If you have any questions, please call VIVA Health Member Services at 1-800-633-1542.

The company also expressed their remorse and pledged to diligently prevent the information from being placed in jeopardy in the future.

Why This Matters​

You may have wondered: "If the Social Security and bank account information has been deemed safe, why worry?"

The answer is:

• Health identification such as Medicare numbers can be used in scams.
• Even without being used, the information was on the internet for more than two months.
• A period of two months on the internet means some is even still available.

So, if you are one of the the affected individuals, it would be prudent to manage your affairs as some type of misinformation may be used against you.

Final Thoughts​

This situation also demonstrates that health data is also valuable, beyond financial information.

If you are one of the 5,000 members affected you should take this seriously. Utilize the free credit monitoring, track your medical bills, and be cognizant of the information use in your behalf.

Have you ever had your information out into the public registry? It is stressful, to put it mildly? At least VIVA Health offered to help out — but protecting yourself is the best way to go!