Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare now faces at least five lawsuits in a massive data breach that affected as many as 11 million patients across 19 states, NewsChannel 5 reported.
The complaints have been filed by patients in Nashville, California, Florida and Texas, according to the July 18 story. The health system said July 10 that 171 of its hospitals were caught up in the breach, where a hacker stole data from an external storage location and posted it online.
Attorney Tricia Herzfeld, who represents a Nashville woman suing the health system, told the news outlet the purpose of her complaint is to "be able to take on a big corporation like HCA and say, 'No, we're not going to take this, and you do have obligations to safeguard our information, and we're going to band together, all 11 million of us in this class, to make sure you know that."
"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," HCA said in a statement to the TV station. "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."