SAN JOSE - A class action lawsuit surfaced in Santa Clara County Superior Court after an insurance company data breach.
The complaint was filed on April 6 by plaintiff Joweli Vunisa against the following defendants: Health Net LLC, Health Net of California Inc., Health Net Life Insurance Company, Health Net Community Solutions Inc., California Health and Wellness, Centene Corporation and Accellion Inc.
According to the complaint, Health Net uses Accellion for secure third-party data file transfers. Accellion allegedly offered a file transfer appliance (FTA) software that is over 20 years old and has encouraged customers to switch to its newer, more secure software, but the plaintiff's insurance company continued to use the old software.
The old FTA software was breached in December of 2019, and Health Net was one of the companies to have lost a significant amount of data.
Private patient information including address, date of birth, insurance information and medical records have been viewed and downloaded by ransomware.
The plaintiff accuses Health Net of choosing to sue Accellion for monetary recovery as its first priority rather than inform its customers that their patient records were compromised; patients weren't notified until March of 2021.
The defendants are sued for violating the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act, the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, the California Unfair Competition Law, invasion of privacy, breach of contract and breach of implied contract.
The plaintiff is represented by Blood Hurt and O'Reardon LLP of San Diego.