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If a ransomware attack may have exposed your medical records, first use the contact details in a verified breach notice to ask whether your specific information was involved and what was affected. Then check your provider and insurance records for unfamiliar care or claims, report errors, and take identity-theft steps if sensitive identifiers or evidence of fraud are involved. A ransomware announcement alone does not show whether your records were accessed or misused.
1. Confirm whether your information was involved
Start with a notice from your provider, health plan, or a related service. Use contact details from a notice you can verify, and ask the organization:
- Whether your specific record was involved, or whether that is still being investigated.
- Which categories of information may have been affected, such as contact details, Social Security number, insurance identifiers, diagnoses, or financial data.
- What time period is relevant and whether the organization has evidence of access or copying (also called exfiltration).
- What protective steps it recommends, how to get updates, and whether the notice covers other organizations whose portals or services you use.
Do not assume that every record was exposed—or that yours was safe—based only on a general announcement. A breach notice should describe the incident and information involved, recommend steps you can take, explain the organization’s investigation and mitigation, and provide a contact. HHS explains the HIPAA Breach Notification Rule.
Incident totals are not individual risk estimates. For example, HHS’s ransomware FAQ on the Change Healthcare attack, updated March 14, 2025, says Change Healthcare notified OCR on January 24, 2025 that approximately 190 million individuals were impacted. That incident-specific figure does not establish whether a particular person’s records were misused.
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2. Check your medical and insurance records
Sign in to portals for your hospital, clinic, doctor, laboratory, and health plan. Review records and statements for activity you do not recognize:
- Diagnoses, procedures, prescriptions, appointments, or services you did not receive.
- Health-plan claims or explanations of benefits for unfamiliar care.
- Bills for services you did not use.
- A legitimate claim rejected because the insurer’s records show you reached a benefits limit.
- Coverage problems linked to a condition in your record that you do not have.
These can be signs of medical identity theft, but a discrepancy may also be an administrative error. Ask the provider and insurer to investigate and correct inaccurate information. If records are not available in a portal, request copies from the provider. The FTC’s medical identity theft guidance recommends contacting the provider and insurer about errors. Keep a dated log of calls and messages, and save notices, bills, and replies.
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If the notice says Social Security or financial identifiers were exposed, or you find suspicious activity, check your credit reports and consider a fraud alert or credit freeze. Both are free, but they work differently.
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| Option | How it works | What to consider |
|---|---|---|
| One-year fraud alert | Contact one of the three nationwide credit bureaus; that bureau must notify the other two. The alert asks creditors to take steps to verify your identity before opening new credit. | One request covers all three bureaus, so it is the more convenient option. The FTC also describes a seven-year extended alert for people with an Identity Theft Report. |
| Credit freeze | Request a freeze separately from each of the three nationwide credit bureaus. It restricts access to your credit report until you lift or remove it. | It takes three requests, but gives you more control over access for new-credit applications. You may need to lift the freeze when applying for credit. |
See the FTC’s instructions for credit freezes and fraud alerts. If you discover identity theft, report it at IdentityTheft.gov. The FTC provides a recovery plan tailored to your situation and an Identity Theft Report; contact the fraud department of each business where misuse occurred. Keep copies of your report and related correspondence. Paid monitoring is not a substitute for checking your records or taking these free steps.
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4. Understand the notice deadline—and its limits
For a breach of unsecured protected health information, HIPAA-covered organizations must notify affected individuals without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovering the breach. Individual notice is generally sent by first-class mail or, if you agreed, email. The federal HIPAA rule is a baseline: state breach laws and requirements for organizations outside HIPAA may also apply.
For breaches affecting 500 or more people, the organization must notify the HHS Secretary without unreasonable delay and within 60 days. For breaches affecting fewer than 500 people, it may report to HHS annually, with the report due within 60 days after the calendar year ends. These reporting rules do not tell you whether your own records were involved; ask the organization using the notice contact.
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5. Report a suspected privacy violation
If you believe a HIPAA-covered provider, health plan, business associate, or Part 2 program mishandled protected information, you can submit a complaint to the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR). OCR accepts complaints online or by mail, fax, or email. Identify the organization and describe what it did or failed to do. HHS explains how to file a complaint.
HHS says complaints generally should be filed within 180 days of when you knew about the alleged violation; OCR may extend that period for good cause. Filing a complaint raises a concern about possible noncompliance; it does not by itself establish that a particular ransomware incident violated HIPAA.
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