Thousands of Iowans’ data exposed in Medicaid breach

Personal information of more than 20,000 Iowa Medicaid members was compromised in a data breach of a state contractor last year, the Iowa Health and Human Services Department announced Tuesday.

Independent Living Systems, a firm that was contracted to do work with Iowa Medicaid, was hacked between June and July 2022. The breach exposed the personal information of more than 4 million people, including 20,800 in Iowa, the department said. Names, Social Security numbers, financial information and Medicaid identification may have been impacted, according to Independent Living Systems.

Iowa HHS and Iowa Medicaid learned of the breach in February, the department said in a news release.

At least five class-action lawsuits have been filed against Independent Living Systems because of the breach. The lawsuits accuse it of irresponsibly storing patient data and not providing adequate notice to affected individuals.

Independent Living Systems is working to improve network security and increase employee training in dealing with sensitive information, according to a notice on the company’s website.

The state Medicaid program this week is mailing letters to all affected members. The letters will include information on what was compromised and how to access free credit monitoring.

Drone prohibitions

Flying a drone over a farm or homestead would be a crime under a bill House lawmakers passed Tuesday.

House File 572 would make it illegal to fly a remotely operated aircraft over a homestead or farm for a prolonged period of time, and would enact harsher penalties if the drone has a surveillance device. Flying over a covered property would be a simple misdemeanor, and using a drone with surveillance equipment would be a serious misdemeanor.

The bill would exempt people operating a drone with the consent of the property’s owner, for commercial and agricultural purposes, or for a public utility or railroad company, among other things.

Adding Medicaid premium tax

Iowa lawmakers hope to increase Medicaid revenues by imposing a 2.5 percent tax on premiums from managed care organizations that administer the state’s Medicaid program in a bill House lawmakers passed Tuesday.

The federal government would reimburse 70 percent of the taxes paid by the organizations, which would bring in more than $100 million in federal dollars in each of the next two years, according to a fiscal analysis of the bill.

The bill, House File 685, passed the House unanimously.

Civil engineers give Iowa a “C”

Iowa’s infrastructure received an overall C grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers in its 2023 report card, holding steady from the last report in 2019.

Most grades remained the same from the organization’s 2019 report. Solid waste dropped to a B- grade while roads climbed to a B-, which were the highest grades received among the 13 categories.

The category that received the worst grade was dams, which received a D.

Bridges received a D+ grade. Twenty percent of Iowa’s bridges are rated poor, making Iowa the worst state in the nation by number of poor bridges.

Multiple sectors of Iowa’s infrastructure would benefit from funding the state’s Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Trust Fund, the organization said. The fund was created by a 63 percent popular vote in 2010, but requires a 1-cent sales tax increase to be funded.

Flooding and natural disasters also are a threat to Iowa’s infrastructure, officials said. The report also argued for improving the resilience of Iowa’s water systems by putting money toward wastewater, drinking water, stormwater, dams and levees.

The complete results are:

• Aviation: C-

• Bridges: D+

• Dams: D

• Drinking water: C

• Energy: C+

• Inland waterways: D+

• Levees: C

• Public parks: C

• Rail: C+

• Roads: B-

• Solid waste: B-