Millions of Sutter Health Patients Affected by Security Breach; Two Sacramento Consumer Rights Firms File Suit

    SACRAMENTO, CA, November 30, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- 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, two prominent consumer protection law firms in Sacramento, have filed a class action complaint* on behalf of Sutter's patients. Their complaint alleges that 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.

According to a Sutter press release - a requirement once a medical information breach involves more than 500 people - two types of data were affected by the computer theft. One included 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. The other included 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.

Patients who think they may be affected by the data breach can 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.

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

Kershaw, Cutter & Ratinoff represents individuals and businesses in personal injury lawsuits, insurance bad faith cases, product liability cases and class action lawsuits. They have demonstrated their ability to devote substantial resources in automobile and motorcycle accidents, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, consumer fraud, consumer privacy issues, defective medical devices and wage and hour lawsuits, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in recoveries for their clients and the classes they have represented.

Website: http://www.kcrlegal.com

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