Roper St. Francis Healthcare Settles Data Breach Lawsuit for $1.5 Million
Roper St. Francis Healthcare has agreed to a $1.5 million settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit that was filed in response to a data breach in 2020. Roper St. Francis Healthcare is a South Carolina-based healthcare system with 4 hospitals and more than 117 healthcare facilities in the state. In late October 2020, Roper St. Francis Healthcare discovered three email accounts had been compromised after employees responded to phishing emails. The email accounts were accessed by unauthorized individuals between October 14 and October 29, 2020. The compromised accounts contained the protected health information of 89,761 patients, including names, medical record numbers, patient account numbers, dates of birth, and limited treatment and clinical information, such as dates of service, locations of service, providers’ names, and billing information.
A lawsuit was filed in response to the breach that claimed Roper St. Francis Healthcare was negligent by failing to implement reasonable and appropriate cybersecurity measures, and that Roper St. Francis Healthcare should have been aware that it was vulnerable to cyberattacks as it had experienced multiple data breaches in the past. Roper St. Francis Healthcare disagreed with the plaintiffs’ claims and chose to settle the lawsuit with no admission of wrongdoing.
Under the terms of the settlement, individuals who were notified about the data breach by Roper St. Francis Healthcare may claim up to $325 as reimbursement for data breach-related expenses, including credit costs and bank fees, and up to four hours of lost time at $20 per hour. If extraordinary losses have been incurred due to identity theft and fraud, claims may be submitted up to a maximum of $3,250. All class members are entitled to one year of credit monitoring services, in addition to those already offered in the individual notifications about the data breach. The deadline for exclusion from and objection to the settlement is April 30, 2024, and the final approval hearing has been scheduled for May 2, 2024.
