Medicaid

Paradigm Healthcare Services Data Breach: Medi-Cal Member IDs and Birth Dates May Have Been Accessed, and What Members Should Do

Paradigm Healthcare Services, a third-party service provider that processes Medi-Cal billing and maintains Medi-Cal member identification numbers for the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS), published a Notice of Data Breach and sent letters dated September 14, 2026. According to Paradigm, it became aware of unauthorized access to its local network on October 13, 2025, took certain systems offline and notified law enforcement. On August 18, 2026, it determined that files containing some individuals' protected health information may have been accessed by an unauthorized party between October 8 and October 15, 2025. The information that may have been accessed is name, date of birth, gender and Medi-Cal member identification number. Paradigm says its Student Health Network platform was not impacted and that it has no evidence the information has been used for fraud or identity theft. The notice gives no count; press reports put it at about 970,000 people (SecurityWeek, citing Paradigm's report to the US Department of Health and Human Services, and HIPAA Journal, which gives 970,403). This site's take: Medi-Cal members who receive the letter should check their benefit statements for services they did not receive, and should not treat a caller who knows their Medi-Cal number and birth date as genuine.