01/08/24 | Appeals Court Upholds Settlement Agreement
The Washington Court of Appeals upheld a class-action settlement valued at $4.4 million on behalf of Sea Mar Community Health Centers patients who lost sensitive personal data in a hack of the health center’s databases. The court dismissed the arguments of an objector to the settlement, ruling that it was fair, reasonable and adequate.
Hagens Berman filed a class-action lawsuit against Sea Mar Community Health Centers in 2021 regarding a data breach that compromised the sensitive personal information of more than 688,000 patients.
ABOUT THE SEA MAR DATA BREACH
Due to Sea Mar Community Health Center’s allegedly negligent data security measures, hackers were able to illegally compromise patient databases, gaining access to the highly sensitive information of more than 688,000 patients of Sea Mar Community Health Centers. The breach occurred on June 24, 2021 and possibly between December 2020 and March 2021.
According to the lawsuit, despite learning about the data breach as early as June 24, 2021, Sea Mar sent notifications out to people affected by the data breach in October 2021. According to reports, Sea Mar patient information was offered for sale on a dark web data leak website, Marketo, as early as June 2021 through Nov. 10, 2021. On this website, this stolen patient data could be bought, sold and transferred.
WHAT INFORMATION WAS STOLEN?
According to Sea Mar, the patient information stolen by hackers included:
- Names
- Addresses
- Social Security numbers
- Birthdates
- Client identification numbers
- Diagnostic and treatment information
- Insurance information
- Claims information
- Images associated with dental treatment
The complaint states that the information compromised in the data breach is significantly more valuable than the loss of credit card information in a retailer data breach because victims can cancel or close credit and debit card accounts. According to the complaint, the patient information compromised in this data breach is impossible to simply “close” and difficult or impossible to change.
THE FINANCIAL TOLL OF A HEALTHCARE DATA BREACH
A 2018 report from the Identity Theft Resource Center focusing on healthcare breaches found that the “average total cost to resolve an identity theft-related incident . . . came to about $20,000,” and a staggering 40% of data breach victims were never able to resolve their identity theft at all. Data breaches and identity theft have a crippling effect on individuals and detrimentally impact the economy as a whole.
ABOUT THE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
In April 2022, Hagens Berman reached a settlement agreement with Sea Mar valued at $4.4 million. Under the terms of the settlement, Sea Mar agreed to provide a total of up to $2,500 per person for unreimbursed “ordinary losses” due to the data breach. Class members who suffered “extraordinary losses” were also eligible to receive reimbursement up to $25,000. The settlement also entitles all class members to enroll in identity protection services for three years of credit monitoring.
TOP CONSUMER RIGHTS FIRM
Hagens Berman is one of the most successful litigation law firms in the U.S. and has achieved more than $320 billion in settlements against some of the nation's largest corporations. Our legal team includes attorneys skilled in the area of data breach and security, with proven success in getting consumers the recoveries that they deserve.
