GIVING BACK

On April 12, 2024, U.S. health conglomerate Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. (Kaiser) filed with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), reporting that 13.4 million of its members' information was taken in a data breach. The healthcare company confirmed the data breach occurred due to unauthorized access on its network servers after the company shared its patients' information with third-party advertisers, including Google, Microsoft, and X.

After an investigation, Kaiser discovered that the data breach occurred due to certain online technologies that were previously installed on its websites and mobile applications that may have transmitted personal information to its third-party vendors. According to the company, the technology allowed them to share the members' names and IP addresses with advertisers, as well as information that could indicate if members were signed into a Kaiser Permanente account or service and how the members used its websites or apps. 

Kaiser is just the latest healthcare company to share patients' personal information with third-party advertisers via an online tracking code. In recent years, many companies have begun embedding codes on their web pages and mobile apps to collect information about users' online activity for analytics. However, one primary concern some have with the Kaiser breach is the invasion of privacy, as customers were tracked not only on their navigation but also on any search terms used in the health encyclopedia.

According to the company, the information accessed during the breach by unauthorized third parties was limited to customers' IP addresses and individual names. Kaiser does not suspect that any usernames, passwords, Social Security numbers, financial account information, or credit card numbers were included in the transmission to the third parties.

Since the announcement of the breach, Kaiser said it removed the tracking code from its websites and mobile apps and is currently unaware of any misuse of any member's or patient's personal information. According to Kaiser spokesperson Diana Yee, the healthcare organization will begin notifying the 13.4 million affected current and former members and patients who accessed its websites and mobile apps starting in May. 

This isn't the first time Kaiser has been hit with a data breach. In April 2022, the healthcare company was impacted by a breach where an unauthorized party gained access to an employee's emails, which contained the protected health information of thousands of patients. According to a breach filing with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, the data exposed during the breach included the first and last names, medical record numbers, dates of service and laboratory test result information of 69,589 people. 

How You Can Protect Yourself After a Data Breach

After a data breach, you and your loved ones need to take action to secure your personal information from those who wish to cause you harm. To help keep track of your data and ensure no fraudulent activity is taking place certain credit unions like Equifax, Experian, and Transunion, offer free yearly credit checks. For more frequent credit monitoring, Credit Karma offers its customers free daily access to their credit reports, suspicious activity alerts, and other financial protective services. 

If you discover activity on your accounts, contact the Federal Trade Commission, your state's Attorney General's office, or law enforcement to report the incident. The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows those who are victims of fraud the right to be informed the information in their credit file has been used against them. For more information about data breaches and how you can protect yourself, click here or head to the FTC's website at www.identitytheft.gov.

As one of the largest healthcare organizations in the United States, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., is the parent organization of several entities that comprise Kaiser Permanente. As of 2023, the healthcare company provides health insurance plans to roughly 12.5 million members and reported an operating revenue of $100.8 billion. Currently, the Kaiser breach is listed on the Department of Health and Human Services website as the largest confirmed health-related data breach of 2024.

After your information was unlawfully accessed due to a data breach, speaking to an attorney can help you understand your legal options. If you believe your information was affected by the Kaiser Permanente data breach, we may be able to help you. For more information, contact a Morgan & Morgan data breach attorney today.

I felt distraught, absolutely devastated at the fact that somebody else harmed me and I wasn’t able to have the medical attention that I felt I deserved.

When you’re in an accident, you expect your car insurance to have your back. Katherine learned the hard way that sometimes that doesn’t happen.

Mother-of-five Katherine Monroe was on her way to a friend’s house when she was rear-ended by a young man who was driving a service van while on his phone. “I guess he thought it turned green and he rammed right into the back end of me, totaled my whole car, everything,” she recalls. The two of them pulled into a nearby parking lot to exchange information. She knew that her car was totaled but thought, health-wise, she was in pretty good shape.

Until later that day.

“The pain didn’t hit me till about an hour afterwards, but something told me to go seek help and I did,” she says. She went to the hospital and discovered that she had six bulging vertebrae and three herniated vertebrae. “They feel like something has attacked your spine all at once and that your spine just compressed really quickly.”

She needed twelve weeks of rehab to get her spine back in alignment. Imagine her surprise when her insurance denied her claim for physical therapy. “I pay for a service and I expected the service and I did not get it even though it wasn’t my fault,” Katherine says.

That’s when she realized she needed an attorney. She was familiar with Morgan & Morgan’s commercials, but she scoured the internet to find reviews and first-hand experiences. She was impressed with what she found and placed a call to the law firm. “The first phone call was very comforting to be honest with you,” she says. She was treated like an individual and not just a number.

Katherine kept in close contact with her case manager, Cindy. Since she was stuck at home in bed, it was a relief that she could communicate via text and email. She says, “I was guided by Cindy and she took care of me. 

She literally held my hand through the whole entire thing, which was amazing.”

Morgan & Morgan went to work and got a settlement that was the maximum value of her insurance policy. The only time Katherine had to go to the ofice was to receive her settlement check.
After she had won her case, Katherine recommended Morgan & Morgan to a friend, who also won her case. 

“My day-to-day life is taking care of five kids and my husband. Morgan & Morgan made my life so much easier,” Katherine says. She’s still not back to 100%, but Katherine is improving every day, working hard for herself and her family. 

Attorney Quote:
“Empowering clients with personalized care and leveraging technology, we secured justice and maximum compensation for Katherine, exemplifying our commitment to making a difference.”
- Dane Jordan, Trial Attorney

Our 1,000+ attorneys are whip smart, bighearted and passionate — people who wouldn’t hesitate to go the extra mile for their clients. Each solely focuses on a specific area of law, fine-tuning their skills and knowledge until they excel at what they do. We are proud to have them represent Morgan & Morgan in the office and the world.

Each week, we'll highlight one of our attorneys who made extraordinary strides this year, in recognition of their outstanding contributions, unique approaches, and incredible advocacy in their communities.

Meet Danielle Blandford, Justice with Grit

Tenacious. Unrelenting. Passionate. Those are just a few words to describe Danielle Blandford. She uses that tenacity to fight tirelessly for her clients. She has a passion for helping people and fighting for justice for those who need it the most. Danielle came from humble beginnings, her mother being a school bus driver and embodying for her what it meant to have grit and hard work to persevere.

Since joining Morgan & Morgan, Danielle focuses her practice on auto litigation, fighting for those who have sustained catastrophic injuries at the expense of another’s negligence. She uses her grit, determination, and competitiveness to fight against insurance companies who refuse to fairly compensate her clients. She has routinely obtained six figure verdicts and numerous seven figure settlements when the insurance company had previously offered $0.

Danielle is also committed to her local community and a devoted mother. Most recently, she was pivotal in helping pass Lily’s Law in the state of Kentucky, which makes a death caused by a drunk driver a vehicular homicide. When she is not in the courtroom or advocating for her community, you can find her on the baseball and football field cheering for her two sons. For anyone blessed to have Danielle as an attorney, she is not only an incredible advocate but also treats her clients like family.