Settlement Reached in Preferred Home Care Data Breach Lawsuit
AssistCare Home Health Services has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit, filed on behalf of individuals affected by a cyberattack and data breach in January 2021. In March 2021, AssistCare Home Health Services, which does business as Preferred Home Care of New York, notified more than 92,000 patients that their protected health information had been exposed in a cyberattack. Unauthorized individuals gained access to its network between January 8 and January 10, 2021, and exfiltrated files containing patient data. The attack was conducted by the Sodinokibi ransomware group, which published some of the stolen data on its data leak site. The compromised data included names, personal information, health information, and Social Security numbers.
A class action lawsuit – Simmons v. AssistCare Home Health Services LLC, was filed in the New York Superior Court for Kings County covering the 92,283 individuals that were notified about the data breach. The lawsuit alleged negligence for failing to implement reasonable cybersecurity measures to protect against a known risk of ransomware attacks on the sector, and that as a result of that negligence, victims were placed at an imminent and elevated risk of identity theft and fraud.
AssistCare Home Health Services chose to settle the lawsuit with no admission of wrongdoing and has agreed to accept claims from class members up to a maximum of $3,900 per claimant. The total value of the settlement was not disclosed. Claims will be accepted up to $400 for compensation for ordinary losses such as bank fees, communication charges, and credit-related costs, and up to 4 hours of lost time at $20 per hour. Claims will also be accepted up to a maximum of $3,500 per claimant to cover documented, extraordinary losses that have not already been reimbursed, such as losses to fraud and identity theft. Regardless of if a claim is submitted, class members are eligible to receive one year of three-bureau credit monitoring services.
Class members have until April 24, 2023, to object to or exclude themselves from the settlement and submit claims for reimbursement of losses. The fairness hearing has been scheduled for June 27, 2023.
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