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Issue Preview: Anthem Data Breach Not Fatal

Will the massive data breach at Anthem Inc. shrink its market share? Probably not, says one expert. And an analyst who follows the company foresees no impact on its share price, either. The Indianapolis insurer, which has 37 million current clients nationwide, disclosed on Feb. 4 it was hit by hackers who compromised databases containing Social Security numbers, birth dates and other personal information of up to 80 million current and former policy holders. The company’s Anthem Blue Cross subsidiary in Thousand Oaks is California’s largest for-profit health insurer and serves 8 million state residents. Barry Cohn, chief executive of insurance brokerage and consulting firm RGEB Employee Benefits in Woodland Hills, said that nothing so far that would indicate Anthem will lose customers in California. Among the other insurers with small group plans that compete against Anthem in California, Aetna Inc. is more expensive and Health Net Inc., in Woodland Hills, is comparable in price, Cohn said. “It is too early to tell whether there will be an effect on market share. My gut instinct is to tend to doubt it,” Cohn said. Read the full story in the Feb. 23 issue of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal.

Mark Madler
Mark Madler
Mark R. Madler covers aviation & aerospace, manufacturing, technology, automotive & transportation, media & entertainment and the Antelope Valley. He joined the company in February 2006. Madler previously worked as a reporter for the Burbank Leader. Before that, he was a reporter for the City News Bureau of Chicago and several daily newspapers in the suburban Chicago area. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in journalism from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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