Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare is facing a lawsuit for a recent data theft incident that affected 171 hospitals and health systems across the U.S. and may have breached information of about 11 million patients.
The lawsuit, filed by Gary Silvers and Richard Marous on July 12 in the Tennessee Middle District Court, alleges that the health system was negligent in safeguarding patients' protected health information.
HCA confirmed to Becker's on July 10 that an unauthorized party stole patient data from its systems and posted it to an online forum.
The health system did not confirm the exact number of individuals whose data was affected, but said 27 million rows of data were compromised.
The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages, legal fees, a jury trial and injunctive relief, as well as demanding that HCA Healthcare implement additional safeguards to better protect patient data.
A spokesperson for HCA told Becker's "our focus now is on our patients and ensuring they have information about the data security incident and the actions already underway to take care of them. Our commitment to our patients is unwavering and is not affected by any class action lawsuits or other legal proceedings. We will respond to any lawsuits or proceedings, in the appropriate forums and ordinary course."
The news was first reported by HIPAA Journal.