Last week, our firm filed a lawsuit against Indiana-based Medical Informatics Engineering. The lawsuit came on the heels of a massive health information breach affecting an estimated 3.9 million patients across the United States. Medical Informatics Engineering is a health records software company with hundreds of health facilities nationwide.
Currently, our firm is seeking compensation for all plaintiffs for damages from the information breach, risk of identity theft, lifetime costs of protective measures against future compromises and to monitor credit, financial, and personal profiles.
According to our co-founder Mark Hutton, at least 26 out of more than 200 facilities whose information was breached were located in Kansas. Medical information is without question your most personal information and we are committed to securing justice for those affected.
Filing Lawsuits to Hold Companies Accountable
It is still difficult to determine just how many people have been affected by this breach. Based on the number of Kansas facilities that were impacted, it may be a safe assumption that more than 10 percent of the total 3.9 million patients are Kansans. Based on public information released by Medical Informatics Engineering, Attorney Blake Shuart believes that the majority of the information breached was in small-town hospitals in southeastern and western Kansas.
Reports indicate that the breach began on May 7, but the company did not notice anything out of the ordinary until May 26. They then started alerting health facilities on June 2, followed by patient warnings in mid-to-late July.
Attorney Shuart pointed out that this is far from the first large-scale data breach in recent history. While lawsuits are needed to help patients obtain compensation, they are also a key way to hold companies accountable for their failure to protect information.
Additional Lawsuits Filed Against Medical Informatics Engineering
Since the breach occurred, three other suits have also been filed against the company – two in Indiana and one in California. When numerous suits are filed, one federal judge will be assigned for pretrial hearings and the cases will be sent back to their original districts for trial.
The lead plaintiff for our firm’s lawsuit against Medical Informatics Engineering is a retired Wichita businessman. Attorney Hutton said that this is because his case is characteristic of others impacted by the breach. One government report also noted that victims in cases like this one may not feel the consequences of the breach until many years have passed.