Sutter Health Data Breach Lawsuit

Last week, Sutter Health announced that the data of over four million of its patients was compromised. The breach reportedly occurred last month after a computer containing unencrypted medical and personal information about millions of Sutter patients was stolen from Sutter's administrative offices in Sacramento.

Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff, LLP and Dreyer Babich Buccola Wood, LLP have filed a class action complaint* on behalf of Sutter's patients. As outlined on the complaint, the security breach violated California's Medical Information Act because patients' health information was left unsecured and unencrypted in the computer that was stolen. If their lawsuit is successful, Sutter may be obligated to pay $1,000 for each patient whose privacy was compromised.

Sutter's press release - a requirement once a medical information breach involves more than 500 people - states that there were two categories of data stored in the stolen computer:

1. A Sutter Physician Services database, which revealed the names, addresses, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, medical record numbers and the names of health insurance plans of over 3.3 million patients from 1995 to 2011.
   
2. A Sutter Medical Foundation database, which revealed the dates of services, medical diagnoses and business procedures used for over 943,000 patients from January 2005 to January 2011.

Sutter claims the computer was slated for encryption, but was stolen before it could be protected.

Options for Sutter Patients

If you are a Sutter Health Patient and suspect that you may be affected by the data breach, Sutter encourages you to visit www.sutterhealth.org to see a list of impacted health care providers. Those whose medical diagnosis information was revealed should receive letters from Sutter Health explaining the loss no later than December 5.

Sutter has also established a toll-free help line to answer questions. The help-line is available Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm PST, and can be accessed by dialing (855) 770-0003, with a 10-digit reference code of 7637111511.

Sutter Health patients whose identities have been compromised in this data breach will be notified by the court once the lawsuit has been certified. 

If you have questions about the case, feel free to submit your question using the form on this page. 

*Case # 32-2011-00114396, filed in Sacramento County Superior Court