Ohio Settles Hospital Data Breach Lawsuit

COLUMBUS, OH — Ohio and other states have settled a lawsuit over a data breach which may have exposed personal information of 6.1 million patients.

Community Health Systems Inc. settled the lawsuit with 28 states, including Ohio. The data breach may have exposed the names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses of 250,000 Ohioans.

Community Health Solutions is required to pay $5 million, total, to be split among the 28 states. Ohio will receive $164,940 through the settlement. The company also agreed to implement a comprehensive information security program.

“Protecting patients is the job of a hospital and that includes shielding patients’ personal information from hackers,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said. “Exposing the identities of patients should never happen, and it will take a long time to rebuild that trust.”

Other states participating in this settlement are Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.