The North Dakota Department of Human Services has admitted that one of its employees threw Medicaid claim resolution worksheets into a dumpster instead of disposing them in a secure onsite shredding receptacle. The result? The documents were found in the dumpster by a citizen who notified the Department, which then notified almost 2,500 patients of the incident.

The Department is offering one year of credit and identity theft monitoring because the compromised information included the patients’ names, dates of birth, Medicaid provider numbers, Medicaid ID numbers, dates of service, amounts billed and allowed, amounts covered by insurance, procedure and diagnosis codes and dental work performed.