Anthem Will Pay $115M to Settle Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit

Health insurer Anthem Inc. will pay $115 million to end class action litigation over a 2015 data breach that exposed information of nearly 80 million individuals.

According to court documents, Class Members are expected to receive two years of credit monitoring as well as money for any expenses due to the data breach under the deal.

Settlement documents indicate that $15 million will be reserved for any out-of-pocket expenses paid by Class Members due to the breach. Anthem will also pay $38 million in attorneys’ fees.

“By settling now, the class is able to take advantage of remedies that, as a practical matter, will be unavailable or worth substantially less by the time this case could be litigated to a final judgment,” noted the court document supporting the plaintiffs’ motion for preliminary approval of the class action settlement. “Our expert on identity theft and fraud protection has explained that credit monitoring services are most critical in the first five years after the Anthem data breach, and the two years of free credit monitoring provided by Anthem have recently expired. Similarly, changes to Anthem’s data security practices will be most effective the sooner they are implemented.”

Anthem is the country’s second largest health insurer and in 2015 it was hit with a massive data breach. The Anthem class action lawsuit alleged that Anthem failed to properly encrypt its data even after being warned by federal agencies about the risk of keeping highly valuable information unprotected.

Under the terms of the settlement, Athem must secure its information and make specific upgrades to its data security systems.

“After two years of intensive litigation and hard work by the parties, we are pleased that consumers who were affected by this data breach will be protected going forward and compensated for past losses,” co-­lead class counsel Eve Cervantez of Altshuler Berzon LLP said in a statement.

The class action had been converted to multidistrict litigation; however, a federal court judge trimmed claims against Anthem affiliates, including Blue Cross entities, after determining they had no connection to the plaintiffs’ claims.

Anthem lost the bid to completely dismiss the case and a judge ordered the U.S. government to produce documents related to a 2013 audit of Anthem’s security systems earlier this year.

Top Class Actions will post updates to this class action settlement as they become available. For the latest updates, keep checking TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter. You can also receive notifications when this article is updated by using your free Top Class Actions account and clicking the “Follow Article” button at the top of the post.

The Anthem Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is In re: Anthem Inc. Data Breach Litigation, Case No. 5:15-­md­02617, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: October 2017, the Anthem data breach class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.

UPDATE 2: On Nov. 20, 2018, Top Class Actions viewers started receiving checks from the Anthem data breach class action settlement worth as much as $50. Congratulations to everyone who filed a valid claim and got PAID!

UPDATE 3: On Nov. 21, 2019, Top Class Actions viewers started receiving checks from the Anthem data breach class action settlement for out-of-pocket expenses worth as much as $5,000. Congratulations to everyone who filed a valid claim and got PAID!