Texas Employees Now Suspected of Stealing from Low-income Accounts

This is being called the largest data breach in Texas Health and Human Services Commission’s history.  

It’s a crime that most people would never suspect, but seven Texas state employees have been fired for improperly accessing and stealing from thousands of Texans who receive Medicaid, food stamps, or another form of public assistance.  

Four Employees Fired in December 

The details were released by The Texas Tribune regarding the individuals who accessed the personal account information of 61,104 Texans without any clear business reason.  

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Those individuals are not being named at this time due to the investigation which is still on-going. 

System Set Up to Fight Abusers Not Employees 

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission is handling $93.4 billion dollars in resources, their system was set up to fight outsiders who are trying to abuse the system. 

Although, unfortunately, the state is finding that threats from inside the agency are as dangerous as those outside.  

Credit Monitoring Service Offered to Those Affected 

Last week the agency started the long process of notifying all 61,104 individuals about the data breach and will be offering two years of credit monitoring to any who wish to take advantage of the service.  

If you believe you were affected, you can call 866-362-1773 and use reference number: B138648. 

The agency has now asked the Texas Legislature for $300 million to update it’s eligibility and enrollment processes. Which are decades old and houses information regarding applications for Medicaid, food stamps, and other public assistance.  

SNAP recipients are being asked to check their Lone Star card transactions and if you suspect fraud call 2-1-1 and choose option 3 to report the fraud, contact law enforcement, and your local agency to make sure your benefits are replaced. 

The agency did hint that more employees could be terminated soon.