Patients Say LabCorp and American Medical Collection Agency Didn’t Do Enough To Prevent Data Breach

LabCorp patients have filed a class action lawsuit against American Medical Collections Agency Inc. (AMCA) and Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LabCorp), saying that their personal information was compromised in a data breach at AMCA.

The LabCorp data breach class action lawsuit was filed by plaintiffs Robert Oswald, Mary Beth Kerns, Marcia Sorin-Rosenthal, and Stephen Rosenthal.

The patients note that LabCorp is one of the world’s leading providers of medical diagnostic testing services, processing 2.5 million patient specimens each week and has laboratory locations throughout the U.S. They go on to note that American Medical Collections Agency Inc. is an external collections agency used by LabCorp and other healthcare companies.

Allegedly, LabCorp has referred around 7.7 million consumers to AMCA, and has sent the consumers’ data to AMCA.

What Private Information Was Compromised?

The patients say that Gemini Advisory identified on Feb. 28, 2019 that there had been a data breach affecting approximately 200,000 customers at American Medical Collections Inc. Allegedly, personal identification information including dates of birth, social security numbers, and physical addresses had ended up on dark web marketplaces.

The patients go on to state the research into the breach indicated that it had begun as early as September 2018. Allegedly, LabCorp had not contacted AMCA about the issue before the week of June 4, 2019.

Plaintiffs: LabCorp and AMCA Should Have Better Protected Patients’ Information

The LabCorp data breach class action lawsuit asserts that LabCorp and American Medical Collections Agency knew about the data breach for at least seven months, but did not notify the people whose information was compromised until almost a year after it began.

The complaint goes on to say that the companies have obligations to their customers to keep sensitive information confidential and to protect it from unauthorized disclosures. Allegedly, they did not uphold their obligations and did not keep their promises to keep the information safe.

Allegedly, LabCorp and AMCA did not have adequate security measures and policies in place to prevent security violations and appropriately handle them if they did happen, so customers’ information security was unnecessarily compromised.

The patients go on to claim that they were injured by the data breach because their personal information was exposed to possible theft and fraud. Allegedly, this could cause injury in the form of lost funds and a possible negative impact to credit, and could cause injury in the form of inconvenience. Allegedly, data breaches and identity theft take significant time and effort to recover from.

The LabCorp AMCA data breach class action lawsuit argues that the companies knew or should have known that patient identifying information was susceptible to data breaches and should be adequately protected. Allegedly, many companies in numerous industries have suffered data breaches, and the companies should have taken steps to ensure that their customer was safe, as data breaches are becoming more prevalent.

Quest Diagnostics was also affected by the AMCA data breach, as Quest also works with AMCA. 

Norton Security notes that data breaches like the LabTech data breach can occur for a variety of reasons. System vulnerabilities can be exploited, weak passwords can be cracked, and a number of other scenarios can occur that can compromise personal information.

The LabCorp Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Robert Oswald et al. v. American Medical Collection Agency et al., Case No. 7:19-cv-05302, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The TCA AMCA Data Breach Investigation is now open! If you were a patient at LabCorp, Quest, or another lab, and received notice that you were affected, submit your information here.

Join a Free LabCorp Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you are a LabCorp patient who has received bills from American Medical Collection Agency (AMCA), you may qualify to join this LabCorp class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.