Vendor that mishandled Pennsylvania virus data to pay $2.7 million in federal whistleblower case

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press

A staffing company that performed COVID-19 contact tracing for Pennsylvania and exposed the private medical information of about 72,000 residents will pay $2.7 million in a settlement with the U.S. Justice Department and a whistleblower. Federal prosecutors announced the settlement with Insight Global on Wednesday. The Pennsylvania Department of Health paid the Atlanta-based company tens of millions of dollars to administer the state’s contact tracing program during the height of the pandemic. Company employees used unauthorized and publicly accessible Google accounts to store residents’ private medical information. The state replaced Insight Global in 2021 after the data breach came to light.