Earlier this month, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging a Chinese national and another individual as part of an extremely sophisticated hacking group operating in China that targeted large businesses in the United States, including health insurer Anthem. The indictment stemmed from an investigation by the FBI in which Anthem cooperated, earning praise
Anthem
Anthem Settles with OCR for $16M for 2015 Data Breach
By Linn Foster Freedman on
The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced this week that it has settled the largest health care data breach for the largest enforcement fine in history. OCR settled the massive data breach Anthem suffered in 2015 for $16 million—a substantially larger fine than any others assessed by OCR for…
Anthem Settles Data Breach Suit for Record $115 Million
By Kelly Frye Barnett on
Posted in Enforcement + Litigation
Anthem Inc. has reportedly agreed to pay a settlement of $115 million to its customers that were affected by what is being called one of the largest data breaches in U.S. history.
The settlement is reportedly the largest ever to result from a data breach in the United States and would end a class action lawsuit that commenced after the 2015 breach. Using a stolen password, hackers were able to break into an Anthem database and steal close to 80 million records containing sensitive information belonging to former and current customers, including customer names, dates of birth, physical and email addresses, medical IDs, and Social Security numbers.
Continue Reading Anthem Settles Data Breach Suit for Record $115 Million
Update on Excellus data breach litigation
By Linn Foster Freedman on
Posted in Enforcement + Litigation
Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield (Excellus) was hit with another proposed class action suit late last week (view related posts here and here).
The case, filed by a New York woman, accuses Excellus BlueCross BlueShield of failing to prevent a massive data breach that exposed the personal information of 10 million customers. This is…
Employer Health Plans: Taking Responsibility for Your Business Associates
By Virginia McGarrity on
Posted in Data Breach, HIPAA and Health Information
The Anthem and Premera Blue Cross data breaches caused widespread panic throughout the employer health plan community earlier this year. For many, these data breach announcements served as a wakeup call for employer health plan sponsors to review and further refine their business associate contracts.
As a health plan sponsor, the employer is responsible for…