Lamoille Health Partners has settled a class-action lawsuit claiming it failed to adequately prepare for a cyberattack for $540,000.
The lawsuit, filed by Matthew Byrne of the Burlington law firm Gravel & Shea, said that Lamoille Health Partners failed to comply with Federal Trade Commission guidelines and industry standards while also violating standards spelled out by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.
The lawsuit, led by St. Albans resident Patricia Marshall, demanded compensatory damages, and called on Lamoille Health Partners to improve its data security systems.
The settlement didn’t require the nonprofit to admit to wrongdoing but did resolve the lawsuit. Under the terms of the settlement, those involved may receive an estimated $50, and up to $5,000 for documented and unreimbursed out-of-pocket losses related to the data breach.
The deadline for those looking to join the lawsuit is May 20, 2024, and final approval hearings will be held at the end of September.
Lamoille Health Partners CEO Stuart May declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying the organization doesn’t see it as fully concluded, but has consistently claimed that the organization is “safeguarding patient information and partnering with patients to help maximize their health status very seriously.”
Federal funding
Sen. Bernie Sanders announced last week that he had secured $15.3 million in congressionally directed spending for 13 projects in Vermont in the most recent round of appropriations, including $1.5 million for “dental, wellness and health education expansion” for Lamoille Health Partners.
The funding will help pay for the construction of a third building on the organization’s Morristown campus that will allow its community dental practice to move out of the Morrisville Plaza and double the space available, according to May.
The health partners recently added a third general dentist, increasing the ability to serve patients seeking dental care, particularly those on Medicare and Medicaid, at a time when many dentists are increasingly declining to do so and even declining to accept other forms of insurance.
A long-promised mobile dental unit to serve more rural areas of Lamoille County and the surrounding area will hopefully be up and running this summer, May said.
A rural family medicine residency program is also in the research and development stage, according to May.
The new dental facility could break ground as early as the summer of 2025 and the health partners plan to welcome their family medicine residents by the following year.
“As chair of our board of directors (Susan Bartlett) says, ‘You guys are always going at 85 miles an hour,’” May said. “I just say we got a lot of catching up to do for the community.”
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexual language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be proactive. Use the "Report" link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.