Lawsuits often follow a healthcare data breach, but understanding what drives litigation trends can help healthcare organizations prepare. Jill McKeon explains:
When a healthcare data breach occurs, lawsuits filed by affected individuals often follow. In fact, data breach lawsuits are on the rise across all industries, according to a 2024 report from law firm BakerHostetler.
In 2023, the firm handled more than 1,150 data privacy incidents, 58 of which resulted in one or more lawsuits. In 2022, just 42 incidents resulted in lawsuits, signifying an uptick in lawsuits in 2023. Nearly 40 of the 2023 lawsuits handled by BakerHostetler involved health information.
Given that thousands of individuals might be affected by a single data breach, the subsequent legal complaints often end up being filed or consolidated as class action lawsuits, meaning that the plaintiffs filed the suit on behalf of a larger group of affected individuals.
Read more at TechTarget.
