Omni Family Health to Pay $6.5 Million to Settle Class Action Data Breach Lawsuit
Omni Family Health, with its 39 community health centers located in Kings, Kern, Fresno, and Tulare counties in California, encountered a cyberattack in 2024. It decided to settle a class action litigation it faced for $6.5 million.
Omni Family Health suffered a cyberattack in February 2024 that led to the shutdown of its IT systems for 5 days. The healthcare provider investigated the cyberattack but found no proof that suggests the compromise of patient information. On August 7, 2024, Omni Family Health learned about Hunters International, a threat actor that claimed to have stolen data from its network and posted it on the dark web.
Omni Family Health looked into the group’s claim and determined that the information was real and mailed notification letters to the 468,344 affected persons, who were present and past patients and employees. Data possibly stolen during the attack contained names, Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses, medical insurance data, and medical data. The affected persons received notifications concerning the data breach on October 10, 2024.
On October 20, 2024, Omni Family Health faced three class action lawsuits filed in the Eastern District of California. Then, 19 other lawsuits were filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, Kern County. The 21 lawsuits were combined into one in the Eastern District of California and were then filed with the Superior Court on January 14, 2025. The Pace v. Omni Family Health case was selected as the lead case.
Omni Family Health rejects all liability and wrongdoing and does not accept all claims and arguments in the lawsuit. In spite of its good defenses against all claims, Omni Family Health decided to negotiate the lawsuit to save time and money and avoid the risk, exposure, hassle, and uncertainty of a court trial and associated appeals. Class lawyer assessed the expenses, risks, and uncertainty of the ongoing lawsuit, and according to an evaluation of similar settlements, the settlement was best for all class members. The court has recently given preliminary approval of the settlement. The schedule of the final fairness hearing is February 26, 2026.
Omni Family Health has decided to set up a $6,500,000 settlement fund, which will be used to pay settlement notification and management costs, lawyers’ fees and expenditures, which is roughly $2.2 million; and class representative awards, which is $1,500 per plaintiff, and around $30,000 in total. What is left of the settlement fund will be the payment for class members’ benefits.
Each class member could file a claim for a refund of documented, unreimbursed losses associated with the data breach up to $5,000. A class member could also opt for a pro rata cash payment. Every class member is determined to receive $105.56 if there’s a 4% claim rate. All class members can also avail single-bureau credit monitoring and identity theft protection services for two years. California resident subclass members can claim an extra pro rata $100 cash payment. The cash payment adjustments may be necessary depending on the number of eligible claims filed, and will be computed after deducting credit monitoring costs from the settlement fund.
Omni Family Health likewise decided to apply changes to its business procedures and make some security improvements to prevent the same incidents later again. HIPAA training should also be considered with the applied changes. The settlement fund will not cover the cost of those security improvements. Those wishing to disagree with the settlement or exempt themselves can do so until December 5, 2025. Claims should be filed on or before January 5, 2026.