Health Aid of Ohio has decided to resolve a class action lawsuit to handle claims concerning its inability to secure the sensitive personal data of its clients.
Health Aid of Ohio based in Parma, OH provides full-service home medical equipment. It was discovered on February 19, 2021 that hackers had acquired access to its system and looked at and extracted files that contain sensitive customer data. The files included data like name, phone number, Social Security number, birth date, insurance details, medical diagnosis, and the kind of equipment that was shipped or serviced. In May 2021, Health Aid sent notifications to 141,149 people who were impacted by the data breach.
A lawsuit was submitted on behalf of the victims, which claimed Health Aid did not employ good cybersecurity procedures to protect the confidentiality of client information. The lawsuit alleged unjust enrichment, negligence, breach of privacy, and other allegations.
Health Aid did not admit any wrongdoing however decided to take care of the lawsuit by resolving all claims associated with the data breach. Based on the stipulations of the settlement, any person whose Social Security number was compromised is eligible to claim a cash payment of as much as $250 and can file a claim for out-of-pocket expenditures, which include credit monitoring expenses, and as much as 4 hours of lost time valued at $15 per hour. Documents need to be given to prove any claim. Any person who can give records that prove his/her being a victim of fraud could file a claim of as much as $2,500. Claims should be filed by August 22, 2022, and the due date for objection or exclusion is July 22, 2022.
Irrespective of the kinds of data exposed in the data breach, all class members are eligible for a free credit monitoring and identity theft restoration service for 12 months. Health Aid has additionally decided to put in place a variety of extra safety measures to better secure customer data later on and will have yearly security risk evaluations in 2022 and 2023 to know if more security improvements can be done.
The hearing for the final approval of the settlement is scheduled for Sept. 20, 2022.