Medicare Data Breach May Affect Some STRS Ohio Enrollees

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued the following statement:

“The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Wisconsin Physicians Service Insurance Corporation (WPS) are notifying people whose protected health information or other personally identifiable information (PII) may have been compromised in connection with Medicare administrative services provided by WPS. WPS is a CMS contractor that handles Medicare Part A/B claims and related services for CMS.”

It is possible some Medicare enrollees in the STRS Ohio Aetna Medicare Plan and Aetna Basic Plan may have been have affected by this breach. If you have been affected, you will receive a notification from Medicare, new Medicare cards and the opportunity to enroll in free identity monitoring services through Experian.

If you are enrolled in the Aetna Medicare Plan, you should continue using your current Aetna ID card.

If you are enrolled in the Aetna Basic Plan, you should continue to use your current Medicare card until you receive a new card. (You will not receive a new Aetna ID card, so please continue using your current one.)

As new Medicare cards are being issued, Aetna is providing STRS Ohio with the new Medicare information and we are updating our STRS Ohio accounts.

You can verify or update your Medicare information on record with STRS Ohio by logging in to your Online Personal Account or calling STRS Ohio toll-free at 888-227-7877.

For more information about this data breach, please visit the CMS website.