Class Action Suit: AvMed Health Insurance Company Hit With Class Action Over Theft of Millions of Customers' Extremely Sensitive Medical Records

MIAMI, Nov. 17, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- A class action filed today in Florida seeks redress for AvMed Health Plans allowing millions of its customers' personal medical data to be compromised.  AvMed acknowledged earlier that it left laptop computers, containing millions of its members' confidential medical records, unattended.  These laptops were subsequently stolen and AvMed's members' personal records were compromised.  The records contained AvMed members' names, home addresses, phone numbers, Social Security Numbers, as well as other highly sensitive medical history data such as diagnosis information, medical procedure and prescription information.

Compounding the damage to its members, AvMed repeatedly underestimated the gravity of the theft and had to make subsequent admissions about the vast quantity of data stolen.  Initially, AvMed contacted only 280,000 members to warn them of the dangers that accompanied the data loss.  However, AvMed made numerous subsequent revisions and finally estimated that approximately 1.2 million of its members' private health records had been breached.

"This is easily one of the largest medical record breaches in history, and the disastrous consequences may plague those affected for their lifetimes," says Plaintiff's attorney, Bill Gray of Edelson McGuire, LLC. "We believe that AvMed did not follow government-mandated HIPPA protocols.  Merely taking the time to encrypt their laptops, likely would have obviated any harm done by this theft.  It is mind-boggling that such simple procedures were not done to protect AvMed's customers, who placed their trust in their insurance company to protect their highly personal information."  Jay Edelson added, "I cannot imagine anyone trusting their personal information to AvMed at this time."  Edelson McGuire recently brought suit against the popular Facebook application developer, Zynga, on behalf of consumers alleging privacy violations.   

Gray is joined in the suit by Jay Edelson, Steven Teppler, and Ari Scharg of Edelson McGuire, and Ed Normand and Diego Madrigal III of Wooten, Kimbrough and Normand, P.A.

About Edelson McGuire:  Edelson McGuire is a commercial litigation and legal and political consulting firm with attorneys in Illinois, New York, California, and Florida.  The firm's attorneys have been recognized as leaders in these fields by state and federal legislatures, national and international media groups, the courts and their peers.  They have testified before the United States Senate on class action issues and have repeatedly been asked to work on federal and state legislation and policy issues involving banking, cellular telephony and consumer privacy.  Their class settlements are collectively worth over one billion dollars and have changed the consumer protection policies of numerous industries.

CONTACT:  Bill Gray of Edelson McGuire, +1-312-572-7212, [email protected]

SOURCE Edelson McGuire