A 麻花视频 medical practice has agreed to pay $918,500 to settle a class action lawsuit filed by current and former patients whose personal information was stolen in a major data breach.
U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski said during a hearing Thursday that he will grant preliminary approval of an agreement between Physicians to Women and attorneys for more than 91,000 affected individuals, according to court records.
The Richard H. Poff United States Courthouse and Federal Building is in 麻花视频.
In the spring of 2023, unknown cybercriminals accessed the practice鈥檚 computer network, taking patients鈥 names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, financial details and medical information.
Physicians to Women and its parent company, Mid-Atlantic Women鈥檚 Care, neglected to take reasonable measures that would have prevented the data breach 鈥 subjecting patients to 鈥渁 lifetime risk of identity theft,鈥 the lawsuit claims.
People are also reading…
The providers of obstetric and gynecological heath care denied the allegations. Court documents state the case was resolved 鈥渇ollowing nearly 10 months of intense litigation, and correspondingly hard-fought settlement negotiations.鈥
Notices will now be mailed to potential class members. Those who join the case will be allowed to make claims of up to $10,000 per individual for out-of-pocket losses.
Money from the settlement will be used to reimburse losses that are 鈥渇airly traceable鈥 to the data breach, compensate for deprivation of privacy and other harms, and to provide two years of credit monitoring services for the patients.
A call to Physicians to Women was not returned Thursday.
But a notice posted to its website, dated Jan. 30, 2024, says the practice is 鈥渘ot aware of any actual or attempted fraudulent misuse of information as a result of this incident.鈥
However, the lawsuit alleges that victims still face the risk of having their information sold on the dark web. 鈥淎ll settlement class members are alleged to have suffered the same injury 鈥 theft of their personal data in the security incident 鈥 and are asserting the same legal claims,鈥 a legal memorandum filed by the plaintiffs states.
After learning of suspicious activity on April 4, 2023, Physicians to Women took immediate action to secure its computer network, identify the files affected, and notify 鈥渁s many impacted individuals as possible,鈥 the notice states.
The settlement agreement 鈥 which was not opposed by the practice 鈥 includes a provision that requires Physicians to Women to enhance its information security at its own cost to guard against future cyberattacks.
The clinic was established in 1940 and provides services to patients in the 麻花视频 Valley and outlying areas.
Health care providers are especially vulnerable to data breaches, second only to financial institutions last year, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center. In 2024, the center reported 3,158 total data compromises, which resulted in notices sent to 1.3 billion potential victims.
Two separate lawsuits against Physicians to Women were filed last February and March in U.S. District Court in 麻花视频. The cases were later consolidated into one, with the plaintiffs asking for certification as a class action filing.
After all claims are submitted and additional information is obtained, Urbanski will consider granting final approval of the settlement at a hearing set for Sept. 2.
