Humana Sued Over Wrongful Records Access Data Breach -

"Louisville, Ky.-based Humana is being sued over a data breach last fall that exposed the personal information of about 65,000 of its health plan members, according to court documents."

Why this is important: In October 2020, an employee of a Humana subcontractor's subcontractor (yes, you read that right) posted private information to a public Google Drive as part of a medical coding training business endeavor. Despite allegedly learning of the breach in December 2020, Humana waited to give notice to its health plan members until March 2021. This delay, combined with the lack of details provided by Humana in the March 2021 notices to plan members, has led to the filing of a federal lawsuit in the Western District of Kentucky. While matters connected to heath record privacy and security are generally regulated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights, lawsuits like this one highlight the potential for further-reaching consequences for mishandled breach responses.