Summit Eye Data Breach Investigation

The Lyon Firm is actively involved in personal privacy and healthcare data theft cases and is currently investigating Eye Care Leaders systems, including Evergreen Health and Summit Eye data breach claims on behalf of plaintiffs nationwide.

Summit Eye Associates was notified of a data security incident experienced by Eye Care Leaders, a third-party provider of the myCare Integrity medical platform that is used by Summit Eye Associates. According to Eye Care Leaders, on or around December 4, 2021, an unauthorized party accessed myCare Integrity data and deleted databases and system configuration files. It was later discovered that an unauthorized actor may have gained information related to patients at Summit.

The Eye Care Leaders breach was confined to the myCare Identity solution, and the specific systems of individual eye care providers were not compromised. It is currently unclear how many individuals have been affected by the breach, but it could massive, seeing that Eye Care Leaders provides software solutions to more than 9,000 ophthalmologists and optometrists.

Other than Summit, another known entity impacted was Evergreen Health. Evergreen has sent notifications to over 20,000 patients in April 2022. Evergreen noted the breach only affected data related to the Evergreen Health Eye Care Clinic.

Ohio-based Allied Eye Physicians & Surgeons Inc. reported to the Maine attorney general’s office that a hacking incident affected almost 21,000 individuals.

Regional Eye Associates Inc. of West Virginia posted a notification statement on its website regarding a hacking incident but did not name the vendor.

Summit Eye did not notify victims of the breach until on or around April 27, 2022. According to the HHS site, the data of 53,818 individuals was compromised in the breach.

Summit Eye Associates is a medical group practice located in Hermitage, Tennessee that specialize in ophthalmology. If you received a data breach notification letter from Summit Eye, please contact us as soon as possible to understand your legal rights in response to the data breach.

What Information was Involved?

Compromised information in health-related data security incidents may include the following:

• Name
• Address
• Social Security number
• Driver’s license number
• Medical information
• Health insurance information
• Payment Information and financial accounts

Joe Lyon is a highly-rated data breach lawyer and Privacy Attorney representing plaintiffs nationwide in class action security breach lawsuits.

There is a growing list of ophthalmology practices, and currently 348,000 individuals, affected by a hacking incident at the electronic health records vendor Eye Care Leaders (ECL). More details about the December 2021 attack are emerging.

Several vision care practices around the country have reported data breaches involving the ECL incident. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights’ HIPAA Breach Reporting Tool website indicates more data breach reports filed by vision practices, related to the ECL security incident, including:

• Frank Eye Center in Kansas – 26,333 individuals
• Ilumin (Arkfeld, Parson & Goldstein) in Nebraska – nearly 15,000 individuals
• Northern Eye Care Associates in Michigan – 8,000 individuals
• Ad Astra Eye LLC in Kansas – 3,700 individuals
• Summit Eye in Tennessee – over 50,000 individuals
• Regional Eye Associates Inc. & Surgical Eye Center in Morgantown, West Virginia – 194,035 individuals
• Texas Tech University – 1.2 million individuals

Can You Sue following the Summit Eye Data Breach?

Entities that collect and store data have a duty to protect personal information to the best of their ability. When they are negligent, and a data theft incident occurs, they may be liable for the following:

• Improperly monitoring data security systems for existing intrusions
• Not ensuring that vendors with access to computer systems and data employ reasonable security procedures
• Improperly training employees in handling emails containing personal data and maintain adequate email security practices
• Failure to implement technical policies and procedures to allow electronic data access only to individuals or software programs granted access rights
• Failure to implement procedures to review records of information system activity regularly, such as audit logs, access reports and security incident tracking reports
• Improperly protecting against reasonably anticipated threats or hazards to the security or integrity of stored data

An experienced class action privacy attorney can determine if you are eligible to file a data breach lawsuit or join a class of plaintiffs. Lawyers investigating the matter can assist in determining the following:

• Did Summit Eye Associates  fail to adopt security safeguards that would have prevented a breach?
• Did Summit Eye notify customers as soon as it learned of the incident?
• Did Summit Eye provide a complete list of all individuals impacted?
• Did Summit provide security in line with industry standards?

The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule calls for data breach notifications to be issued to the Secretary of the Health and Human Services “without unnecessary delay.” No later than 60 days after the date of discovery of a data breach, healthcare entities have a duty to alert the government and begin preparing to alert the public.

Consumer privacy attorneys say there has been a trend for HIPAA-regulated entities to wait as long as possible before alerting affected individuals, a practice that place consumers at a higher risk of identity theft and fraud.

In many cases, data breach notifications have been sent out many months after a security breach incident was detected. There may be valid reasons for a delay in reporting, though in some cases this institutes a severe disservice to those impacted by a data theft event.

Delays to individual data theft notifications could mean individuals’ Personal Health Information (PHI) has been in the hands of criminals for many months before they are even aware about the data theft.

Privacy lawyers claim promptly sending out individual data breach notification letters and being transparent about the fraud risk for individuals is not only ethical, but the only way to avoid stiff penalties.

The HHS has made it clear that if healthcare entities do not comply with the 60 day rule from the date of data breach discovery, they may be liable for notification violations.

What Should You Do Following the Summit Eye Data Breach?

Regardless of the reason for a security breach, victims have the right to file a claim against a company for failing to protect their information. All companies and organizations must exercise reasonable care in protecting patient information, and if they do not, they can be held liable for the damages that result, including identity theft.

Security breach plaintiffs and privacy attorneys representing plaintiffs have been able to settle multi-million dollar recoveries. If you or a loved one has received notice of an online security incident affecting you, or suspect signs of identity theft, contact a data theft lawyer for a free consultation.

Individuals can be ruined financially and emotionally, and deserve proper online security measures. But many companies and hospitals violate privacy laws and consumer rights, and thus face class action lawsuits.

After a data breach turns your life upside down, remember that you are not the only victim. There are millions of Americans who suffer from data privacy events every year, and in turn, seek legal action for compensation and to hold companies accountable for negligent security systems.

If you want more information on current data security litigation and how to file a data theft class action lawsuit, contact The Lyon Firm for a free and confidential Summit Eye Associates or EvergreenHealth data breach case review.