It was only a matter of time before data breaches became a fresh ‘happy hunting ground’ for trial lawyers. On the weekend of 15 October, a computer was stolen from Sutter Health Foundation, a division of Sacramento, California-based Sutter Health. Unfortunately, the computer contained data on approximately 4 million patients and, while password-protected, was otherwise unencrypted although medical and patient information was fairly limited and Sutter Health was public in its disclosure. But not enough. This past week saw the filing of a $1 billion class action lawsuit against Sutter for negligence and for missing the state-specified deadline on informing patients. Healthcare IT News, Sacramento Bee.
1 thought on “Data breach: not priceless, but $1 billion”
Comments are closed.
Let me see – $1B divided between 4M patients is $250 each. So, less lawyers’ fees I guess that would be about $2.50 per patient. This poses the question as to who, exactly, stands to benefit from this class action suit. Oh, pardon me, it is obvious! 🙂