Migliaccio & Rathod LLP is currently investigating the Knoxville, Tennessee-based East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (“ETCH”) for failing to safeguard sensitive patient information in a data breach that occurred March of 2022. Although this incident occurred recently, ETCH released a statement on its website announcing that its systems had been the victim of network security attack on March 13, 2022, and that it was still investigating whether patient information had been affected.
Although ETCH is investigating the incident and may begin sending notification letters to affected individuals, how long such an investigation will take and how much time will elapse before the extent of the information affected is released is still unknown. In many data breaches, the lapse in time between the breach and the hospital’s notice to affected patients allows hackers to acquire and sell sensitive patient information such as social security numbers. In previous data breaches, victims of data theft have been forced to spend money on credit monitoring services or other fraudulent charges. Some individuals affected by the data breach may have noticed one or more of the following types of fraudulent activity related to the loss of their healthcare information: suspicious credit card charges, requests for government services or loans, medical procedures ordered without patient consent, and/or disrupted use of the hospital’s patient portal.
Have you or your loved ones been an East Tennessee Children’s Hospital patient? Have you or a loved one recently received a data breach notification letter?
If so, we would like to hear from you. Please complete the contact form on this page, send us an email at [email protected], or give us a call at (202) 470-3520.
The lawyers at Migliaccio & Rathod LLP have years of experience in class action litigation against large corporations, including in cases involving data breaches. More information about our current cases and investigations is available on our blog.