Louisville, Ky.-based Humana is being sued over a data breach last fall that exposed the personal information of about 65,000 of its health plan members, according to court documents.
Seven details:
1. In the lawsuit, filed May 26 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, the plaintiff Janie Segars alleges that Humana was negligent in informing individuals affected by the breach of the situation.
2. Humana uses the medical records request company Cotiviti, which is partnered with subcontractor company Visionary Medical Systems to review and collect medical records for reporting to CMS.
3. The lawsuit alleges that a Visionary Medical Systems employee took the private information of Humana customers and posted it on a publicly-accessible Google Drive account, which made the data public and vulnerable to potential criminals.
4. The records were available on the employee's Google Drive account between Oct. 12 and Dec. 16, 2020; the employee uploaded the information "in an effort to provide medical coding training" as part of a personal coding business endeavor, according to the court documents.
5. Visionary Medical Systems told Humana of the breach on Dec. 22, but the health insurer didn't inform its customers of the incident until March 1, the plaintiffs said, adding that Humana did not disclose details about how the breach happened, what information was exposed and who might have the data.
6. The plaintiff listed claims for negligence, invasion of privacy and breach of implied contract by Humana, Cotiviti and Visionary Medical Systems.
"Indeed, since Humana has decided to keep this information secret, part of the reason this lawsuit is necessary is to determine what happened so that class members may take whatever steps may be necessary to protect themselves," the lawsuit states.
7. The plaintiff is seeking monetary and actual damages and/or restitution and punitive damages.