Premera Class Action Lawsuit Seeks $5M for Data Breach

A Premera Blue Cross class action lawsuit has been filed in Oregon after what appears to be one of the largest cyber attacks to date.

The Premera data breach exposed 11 million insurance policyholders to hackers seeking medical and financial information of Premera customers. 

The security breach occurred after the federal government warned Premera Blue Cross that the insurance company’s IT system was particularly susceptible to cyber thieves.

According to the class action lawsuit filed by plaintiff Darin Purcell, medical records are extremely beneficial in underground criminal exchanges as the data can be used to engage in insurance fraud.

The Premera Blue Cross class action lawsuit is seeking $5 million in damages for a proposed class of all current and former insureds of Premera Blue Cross residing in the U.S. whose personal and/or medical information was compromised in the data breach.

The Premera Blue Cross Class Action Lawsuit is Purcell v. Premera Blue Cross, Case No. 3:15-cv-00572-BR in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, Portland Division.

Massive Data Breach

In April 2014, the federal government audited Premera’s IT system and found the system vulnerable to cyber attacks in ten different areas.

The Premera class action lawsuit alleges that instead of listening to the federal warning and strengthening its IT cybersecurity, the insurance company allowed itself to remain vulnerable, resulting in a massive data breach only one month later.

By May 5, 2014, hackers began to engage in one of the largest data breaches in history and continued to infiltrate Premera’s IT system for months.

Cyber thieves had access to clinical and personal information of 11 million current and former Premera Blue Cross customers. Some of the data they collected includes:

• Social Security numbers
• Birth dates
• Bank account numbers
• Medical claim information
• Telephone numbers
• Names
• Street addresses
• Email addresses
• Member ID numbers

Collecting personally identifiable information can make an individual vulnerable to other crimes including financial identity theft. Hackers can use the information to open new accounts under the victim’s name.

The healthcare breach affected current and previous policyholders of Premera Blue Cross, Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska, and affiliates including Vivacity and Connexion Insurance Solutions Inc. It also affected Blue Cross Blue Shield members who received treatment in Washington or Alaska, and about 60,000 members of LifeWise Health Plan of Oregon.

Premera Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit

The class action lawsuit filed by Purcell alleges that Premera Blue Cross had knowledge of the data breach but did not fully and accurately inform their customers for several months. Purcell claims he received a vague data breach notification letter from Premera on March 17, 2015, yet alleges the company was aware of the data security breach since at least Jan. 29, 2015.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) requires companies to provide data breach notifications “without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery of a breach.” This allows customers to adequately protect their identities in a timely manner.

The class action lawsuit claims that Premera is still in the process of alerting policyholders and are suing the insurance company for failing to warn in a timely manner.

The class action further accuses Premera of failing to implement cyber security measures as recommended in the federal audit. The plaintiff alleges that current and former subscribers are now more susceptible to identify theft, which may include but is not limited to fraudulent medical care in the victim’s names and alteration of the victims’ true medical records.

Join a Free Premera Blue Cross Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you were insured by Premera and/or its affiliates between 2002 and Jan. 29, 2015, you may have a legal claim for compensation. This includes all individuals who fall into one of the following categories:

• Premera Blue Cross subscriber or applicant
• Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alaska subscriber or applicant
• Vivacity applicant, customer, or member
• Connexion applicant, customer, or member
• Individuals “doing business” with Premera
• Members of other Blue Cross Blue Shield plans who sought treatment in Washington or Alaska
• Members of LifeWise Health Plan of Oregon and other Premera subsidiaries

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