On June 5, 2024, Judge Bridget N. Whitmore of District Court for Dallas County, Texas, 193rd Judicial District, granted final approval of a proposed class action settlement between plaintiffs represented by Goldenberg Schneider and Defendants Tenet Healthcare Corporation, VHS San Antonio Partners, LLC d/b/a Baptist Healthcare System, and Resolute Hospital Company, LLC d/b/a Resolute Health Hospital (collectively, “Defendants”). VHS San Antonio Partners, LLC d/b/a Baptist Healthcare Systems is a healthcare system providing medical services to the communities in South Texas and includes Resolute Health Company, LLC d/b/a Resolute Health Hospital . Baptist Health Hospital and Resolute Health are part of the Tenet Healthcare Corporation, a publicly traded corporation on the New York Stock Exchange which is a national health system and services platform that owns 60 hospitals and 550 outpatient centers in the United States.
On or about June 17, 2022, Defendants began sending letters (“Notice Letters”), informing recipients that between March 31, 2022 and April 24, 2022, “an unauthorized third party was able to access certain systems that contained personal information and remove some data from the network.” The Notice Letters stated that information may have included “(1) demographic information to identify and contact you, such as full name, date or birth, and address; (2) Social Security number; (3) health insurance information, such as name of insurer/government payor, policy and/or group number; (4) medical information, such as medical record number, dates of service, provider and facility names, chief. complaint or reason for visit, and other procedure and diagnosis information; and (5) billing and claims information, such as account and/or claim status, billing and diagnostic codes, and payor information.” Plaintiffs alleged that the data breach was a result of Defendants’ failure to implement and maintain reasonable data security measures. Plaintiffs alleged that in total, the Data Breach impacted over 1,200,000 individuals.
The approved settlement created a $10,000,000.00 all-cash, non-reversionary Settlement Fund in exchange for a release of all claims that were or could have been alleged in the case. Class members who suffered out-of-pocket losses as a result of the data breach were eligible to file a claim seeking reimbursement of those expenses. Specifically, a class member could choose to receive compensation for unreimbursed losses upon submission of a valid and timely Claim and supporting documentation for out-of-pocket losses more likely than not resulting from the Data Incident, up to a maximum amount of $5,000. Class members could also select to receive a cash payment, the amount of which will depend on how many valid claims are filed. In addition to the Settlement Fund, the settlement recognizes that Defendants had adopted certain business practice changes designed to safeguard Class Members’ Private Information. These changes provide meaningful non-monetary relief that substantially reduce the risk that Settlement class members will suffer the same harm in the future.
For more information about the settlement, visit the settlement website at https://tenetdataincidentsettlement.com/