The Pennsylvania Department of Health backed out of a State Senate Committee hearing Tuesday morning on the potential data breach at Insight Global, the company the state hired to do COVID-19 contact tracing.
The company revealed nearly two weeks ago employees stored patient data on unsecured documents, compromising information like patient names, COVID-19 diagnoses, and telephone number.
Acting State Secretary of Health Alison Beam and Executive Deputy Secretary Keara Klinepeter were both scheduled to testify about the potential breach at a hearing Tuesday with the State Senate Communications and Technology Committee.
At the hearing, committee chair Kristin Phillips-Hill said she was notified Friday the Department of Health would not testify.
"The opportunity to provide transparency, lost," Phillips-Hill said. "Yet, questions still remain."
In a statement to News Radio KDKA, the Department of Health said a lawsuit against them over the breach stopped them from testifying.
"The Department of Health was planning to participate in today's Senate hearing," a department spokesperson said. "However, once a law suit against the department was filed, we were unable to accept the invitation because we do not comment on matters relating to pending litigation."
Tuesday's hearing lasted only ten minutes.
Phillips-Hill said among the unanswered questions is when the Department of Health knew about the breach.
"The department claimed they were made aware of the security breach recently when they notified the General Assembly on April 29," she said. "However, e-mails between employees at Insight Global show that concerns were raised back in February."
According to Insight Global, they were made aware of the issue in April.
"Insight Global leadership became aware of this security vulnerability on April 21, 2021 and immediately took steps, completed by April 23, 2021, to secure and prevent any further access to or disclosure of information," the company said on their website.
The breach impacted over 70,000 Pennsylvanians.
Governor Tom Wolf told News Radio KDKA the state will not renew their contract with Insight Global when it expires in July, but other state officials have pushed for the state to terminate the contract now.
