Cook County Health Data Breach

Attorneys working with ClassAction.org are looking into whether a class action lawsuit can be filed in light of the data breach affecting Cook County Health.

As part of their investigation, they need to hear from current and former patients who received notice of the incident.

Cook County Health, a network of hospitals and health centers in Illinois, has reported that its patients' personal and medical information was exposed in a data breach affecting Perry Johnson & Associates, Inc. (PJ&A), a vendor that provided medical transcription services to the healthcare network.

On May 2, 2023, PJ&A became aware of a potential data security incident impacting its systems and, following an investigation, learned that an unauthorized party had accessed sensitive information belonging to its customers, including Cook County Health. In late July, PJ&A notified the healthcare network that its patients' data was accessed and exfiltrated between April 7 and April 19, 2023.

The Cook County Health data breach reportedly impacted 1.2 million patients and may have exposed their names, dates of birth, addresses, medical record numbers, encounter numbers, medical information and dates and times of service. Roughly 2,600 patient records may have also included Social Security numbers.

Cook County Health said it would send data breach notices to affected patients.

The Cook County Health network includes John H. Stroger, Jr. Hospital, Provident Hospital and 15 community health centers in Cook County, Illinois.

If your information was exposed in the breach, attorneys want to hear from you. You may be able to start a class action lawsuit to recover compensation for loss of privacy, time spent dealing with the breach, out-of-pocket costs, and more.

A successful case could also force Cook County Health to ensure it takes proper steps to protect the information it was entrusted with.