Change Healthcare Data Breach Lawsuits MDL Judge Seeks Cooperation With State Courts

Change Healthcare Data Breach Lawsuits MDL Judge Seeks Cooperation With State Courts

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank has sent a letter to four judges in California and Texas state courts, requesting that they coordinate with him on the handling of lawsuits over last year’s massive Change Healthcare data breach.

Although Change Healthcare is not a household name, the company plays a critical role behind the scenes of the healthcare industry, providing software, analytics and administrative services. Its systems handle private health information for roughly one in three Americans each year.

However, Change Healthcare suffered a ransomware attack in February 2024, which exposed sensitive information and highly personal data on nearly 190 million individuals, including names, birthdates, Social Security numbers, medical records and insurance details. 

Following the disclosure of the Change Healthcare data breach, lawsuits began to emerge in both federal and state courts nationwide, as impacted individuals sought to hold the company accountable for failing to safeguard their data. 

While some plaintiffs chose to file in state courts, often due to localized harm or strategic legal preferences, others filed in federal court, where the cases have been centralized for coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings before Judge Frank of the U.S. District of Minnesota.

There are currently at least 72 lawsuits now consolidated in a federal MDL (multidistrict litigation) before Judge Frank, with dozens of additional claims pending in various state courts, including in California, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Tennessee, New Jersey and Nebraska. To avoid conflicting pretrial rulings and schedules, Judge Frank is now seeking to coordinate efforts across all jurisdictions as the litigation heats up.

Change-Healthcare-Lawsuit-Lawyers
Change-Healthcare-Lawsuit-Lawyers

Last month, Judge Frank issued a Coordination Order in the federal Change Healthcare MDL, directing the parties to begin early settlement discussions and prepare for pretrial discovery. 

Recognizing the growing number of related cases in state courts, he emphasized the need for coordination with judges overseeing those proceedings to avoid duplicative efforts and ensure a more efficient resolution of the litigation.

On May 1, Judge Frank sent a letter (PDF) to Commissioner William M. Litt of the Superior Court of California, Judges Shawn Nelson and Katherina A. Bacal, also of California state court, and Judge KT Musselman of Texas state court. The letter indicates there are a combined 26 Change Healthcare lawsuits filed in state courts nationwide.

“I understand that each of you have one or more of those state cases, and I would like your input concerning the coordination of the state and federal cases,” Judge Frank wrote. “In my previous MDL cases, the state and federal courts, with few exceptions, were able to coordinate pretrial matters to effectuate a meaningful and prompt resolution on those cases.”

Judge Frank said that he hoped that the coordination will lead to fair and meaningful discovery, deadlines and bellwether trial verdicts. He invited each of the judges to issue a coordination order in their respective courts, as he did last month, noting that such orders are not binding, and are essentially an agreement to share resources and issue complimentary orders at the state and federal level.

It is the second letter issued of its type in the litigation. The first letter was sent out last month to judges in Tennessee, New Jersey, Florida, Texas, California, Arizona and Nebraska.

As the Change Healthcare data breach lawsuits move forward throughout the remainder of 2024, it is expected that Judge Frank will call for the parties to prepare a group of bellwether test trials, to help see how juries may respond to evidence and testimony likely to be repeated in both state and federal trials. 

While the results of these bellwether trials will not be binding on other claims, they could help the parties negotiate a Change Healthcare data breach settlement agreement.

Judge Frank already had the parties meet on April 30 to outline the structure and timeline for potential Change Healthcare settlement negotiations. If the parties are unable to resolve the litigation during the coordinated MDL proceedings, each of the individual cases brought in the federal court system may be remanded back to U.S. District Courts nationwide for separate trial dates in the future.




6 Comments


Kelly
I received a letter of being data breached.

David
Financial Dropped and healed my income tax return

Theresa
Those handling our personal information And causing misuse of that information need to be held responsible. Need better ways of protection of personal information.

Paula
Data breech

Valerie
I just said and poured my heart out about my anxiety and depression being exacerbated by physical problems due to stress. I don’t know what happened to the comment it just disappeared! Besides having PTSD which is gotten so much worse and borderline personality disorder which takes hour long therapy 5 days a week that is not helping when my head is in one position worrying and stressing and making my physical problems worse. I have failed back surgery which is really gotten bad cancer four times and it’s reoccurring since this breast cancer has returned and I’ve been diagnosed with three different autoimmune diseases piggybacking off each other which I feel I honestly believe it is killing me trying to find answers to all of this yeah I am reminded every day when I am invaded by all of the problems that I’m trying to keep up with they have closed my PayPal account due to someone something trying to get in and use my account. The brain fog from Sjogren’s makes me so absolutely confused and I’ve never been this way until all of this torment I considered myself a very intelligent person but that’s all different now I can’t keep my thoughts straight when I’m reminded of all of the crap that they can do with my information! I have stopped keeping myself clean and up to par like I used to have such Pride with. Now I don’t care whether I brush my teeth or comb my hair, I have taken my anger to an extreme with the people around me. My emotions are out of whack and the first thing that happens when I become totally overwhelmed trying to take care of all these problems I turned to anger and bite people’s heads off. It’s affecting my thoughts making me feel like I am mentally deficient when I get notifications from places that want to take out loans and invade the credit that I have I’m just not dealing with it well at all! I’m so concerned about my credit every time something comes through they hit my credit which has been supposedly put a freeze but they’re still getting in and messing with it. When is this going to stop? The company that you supplied me with to watch what’s going on told me on the phone today that they don’t do anything to handle it or control it what is it for if not that I just feel like I’m physically dying and mentally losing it! This is not funny I cry daily I’m serious I cry every single day feeling that I am worthless and unable to take care of myself. Something has to be done my information has shown up on the dark web and they know everything about me stuff that I had forgotten procedures that I’ve had done trying to get well is brought to my attention it’s cruel! Who am I supposed to notify about this if I’m thinking that it would just be easier just not to deal with it and just go away! I’m not well and this has caused me to go to extremes I can’t even go outside with my animal worrying unnecessarily I imagine things happening when I’m sitting outside I don’t know which way is my parking spot or my neighbor I don’t understand and can’t figure out where I am sitting. I’m just physically and mentally messed up they’ve had to increase my pain meds now I’m on oxycodone and Fentanyl which doesn’t help my understanding of what’s going on on the outside I hate to admit it! My friends have started asking me what my problem is and telling me that I’m not the same person that I need to figure out what’s wrong and try to get back to the person I used to be I can’t believe that something like this has pushed me over the edge just trying to figure it out God forbid they get a hold of my Social Security which is only just over $1,000 a month I don’t know what or where that would put me. I’m exhausted fatigue different love to me I would sleep all the time so I didn’t have to deal with it. Something like this shouldn’t have created such horrid problems in my head but it has I’m so tired I have to try to sleep I started staying up late at night because I’m not bothered at those hours usually oh well I’m dealing with the new problem of daily headaches which I have created one tonight just thinking about it and talking about it I need to take my meds and try to get some sleep I really sound like I said I’ve become a real mess a real loser I’ve had these problems before but this has made it so much worse I’m working with six different doctors now. When I try to explain it to them they just act like they don’t care or they don’t want to take it on and I’ve been told that the things I’m overwhelmed with lately I just something that I need to deal with and I don’t think that that is correct thanks for letting me dump my feelings please help I don’t know what to do maybe you can tell me or do something about this just stop all this bull s*** so I can try to get better! Val

Kelly
It’s time for careless mishandling and corner cutting to save a buck to stop.

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