Medical patients are asked to entrust sensitive information to healthcare providers and do so assuming that this information will be kept private and safe, as required by the law. This includes students, who often provide such personal information to healthcare providers affiliated with their college or university. Accordingly, businesses such as MU Health Care owe a duty to their patients to securely maintain that data in confidence — to use appropriate safeguards to prevent criminals from accessing this personal, private information.
Unfortunately, MU Health Care, which is affiliated with the University of Missouri, waited over nine months since it first learned that an unauthorized person potentially gained access to its systems, and over a month since it completed its investigation into the breach, before informing patients and students that their personal information had been exposed in September 2019.
Any potential data breach should be taken very seriously. Such a breach can result in fraud or identity theft. Here, personal information has been exposed to criminals and may soon be, if it has not already been, used for fraudulent purposes.
Attorneys at Finkelstein, Blankinship, Frei-Pearson & Garber, LLP have successfully recovered millions of dollars on behalf of data breach victims. We are currently investigating this matter, as well as other data breaches. If you believe that your information may have been unlawfully accessed, please contact us to discuss your legal options.