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HCA Healthcare Data Breach Compensation Claims Guide

By Stephen Moreau. Last Updated 8th March 2024. Have you fallen victim to an HCA Healthcare data breach? As a result of your personal information being compromised, it’s common to incur some sort of subsequent damage. You may be asking questions such as ‘what is a healthcare data breach?’ Or you may have experienced financial losses or suffered from identity theft. Alternatively, your data breach may have caused you emotional distress.

But are you entitled to data breach compensation for any such damage caused? If your data breach was caused by someone else’s failings, then you could be able to make a claim against them.

HCA Healthcare data breach claims guide

HCA Healthcare data breach claims guide

This article will help you understand what your rights are after an HCA Healthcare data breach, providing you with our expert advice on how to successfully secure the compensation that you’re entitled to. From helping you calculate how much compensation you could be awarded, to how to find the best lawyer to win your case, please continue reading if you’d like to learn more about making a data breach claim.

On the other hand, you could save yourself the time and hassle by contacting Legal Expert today. Upon getting in touch with our team, one of our specialist advisors can assess your situation for you, free of charge, and tell you whether you have a claim or not. If they believe that you could be entitled to compensation, they can connect you with one of our solicitors to handle your case on a No Win No Fee basis and begin your claim on your behalf.

Our team is available 24/7, so why wait to get in touch and see what we could do for you?

Select A Section

  1. A Guide To Data Breach Claims Against HCA Healthcare
  2. What Are Data Breach Claims Against HCA Healthcare?
  3. GDPR Standards To Be Applied To Private Healthcare Services
  4. Private Healthcare Data Breach Causes
  5. Private Medical Companies Who Have Breached Data Privacy Laws
  6. Complaining About A Private Health Company To The Information Commissioner’s Office
  7. How Could I Be Compensated If Affected By A Data Breach?
  8. Calculating Compensation For Data Breach Claims Against HCA Healthcare
  9. No Win No Fee Data Breach Claims Against HCA Healthcare
  10. How Do I Find A Lawyer Handling Data Breach Claims
  11. Speak To Our Team
  12. Quick Extra Resources

A Guide To Data Breach Claims Against HCA Healthcare

In order to help guide you through the claims process from beginning to end, we’ll start by familiarising you with some definitions, including what we mean when we make reference to data and what exactly a data breach involves. In addition, we’ll outline some key principles of data protection regulations established in UK law to help you determine whether your personal information may have been handled unlawfully.

Next, we’ll discuss the types of data that organisations could collect from you and their reasons for doing so. In addition, we’ll explain some common failings that could lead to a data breach, and present a real case study of data breaches suffered by a private healthcare organisation to illustrate how an HCA Healthcare data breach could happen.

We’ll then detail the steps that you could take after suffering a data breach of your own. These include contacting the organisation responsible for your breach directly, reporting it to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for investigation, and ensuring that no more of your personal information could be compromised as a result of the breach by implementing security measures.

In terms of making a data breach claim, we’ll explain the different types of damage that you could be compensated for and help you understand how much you could be entitled to in your settlement. We’ll then provide you with our top tips for making a successful claim, including how a No Win No Fee agreement could be of use to you and how to find a solicitor to manage your case.

If you’d like any more information over the course of this article or would be interested in learning more about your circumstances, please speak to one of our specialist advisors today for a free consultation. Our solicitors have years of experience securing their clients with the compensation that they deserve, so why not see how we could help?

Limitation Periods on Data Breach Claims

Before you decide to seek compensation for the damage caused by your data breach, it’s important to heed the relevant time limits that apply to these types of claims:

  • For typical data breach cases, the claimant has up to 6 years to make a claim.
  • For data breach cases that involve a breach of human rights, claimants only have up to 1 year to make a claim.

To find out whether you’re within the relevant time limit to make a data breach claim, please speak to one of our specialist advisors today for a free consultation. If you leave it too long before starting legal proceedings, you could risk losing the compensation that you deserve.

What Are Data Breach Claims Against HCA Healthcare?

In order to help guide you through the claims process from beginning to end, we’ll start by familiarising you with some key definitions, including what we mean when we make reference to data and what exactly a data breach involves.

Data is the term used to describe any of your personal information that could be used to identify you, whether that be indirectly or directly. This could include details like your name, date of birth, home address and telephone number, as well as financial and medical records. In addition, data collected by online organisations could include your usernames, passwords and security answers, as well as information on your online activity.

A data breach is a term used to describe a security incident that compromises your personal information, whether that be accidentally or deliberately. These incidents involve the accessing, disclosing, leaking or destroying of your data without your permission, meaning it’s unauthorised and therefore unlawful.

If you’ve suffered an HCA Healthcare data breach and you believe that the organisation’s failings were responsible, you could be entitled to compensation for your suffering as long as you can prove their failings and the harm caused. To learn more about your rights in this situation, please continue reading this guide to data breach claims or contact one of our specialist advisors today for free advice and support.

GDPR Standards To Be Applied To Private Healthcare Services

In the UK, organisations are required to adhere to data protection laws. If they’re found to have demonstrated non-compliance or negligence in regard to these regulations, they could be penalised as a result, particularly if they’ve caused a data breach.

Since 2018, the UK has used the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to inform its standards of data protection and privacy practices. Enacted under the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA), the following key principles were outlined as a framework for how organisations interact with data:

  • Data should only be collected for purposes consented to
  • Data should be processed fairly
  • Data should be securely protected
  • Data should be kept updated
  • Data shouldn’t be retained for longer than necessary
  • Data shouldn’t be transferred to countries without their own data protection laws

Any organisation that interacts with your data has a duty of care to adhere to this legislation as much as is reasonably possible, meaning they must have a strong system of data protection in place before they collect any of your personal information. 

If an organisation suffers a data breach and there’s a chance that your personal information may have been compromised, they’re required to inform you within 72 hours of gaining knowledge of the breach.

If you’ve suffered an HCA Healthcare data breach and you believe that the organisation’s failures were responsible, you could be entitled to claim compensation for any damage they’ve caused you, provided you can prove their breach of duty. For more information, please contact our team at Legal Expert today to see how we could help.

Private Healthcare Data Breach Causes

This section aims to familiarise you with some common causes of data breaches in a private healthcare setting, which could lead to an HCA Healthcare data breach.

As medical databases contain an abundance of personal information on patients, from their contact details to their medical records, they are a common target of cyberattacks. Hackers often infiltrate medical databases with the intention of acquiring enough details to carry out theft or even an identity fraud crime, often selling this information on the dark web.

Medical data breaches are also commonly caused by human error, where the duty of care owed to protect your personal information is either deliberately or accidentally breached. Some examples include:

  • Leaving documents containing your sensitive details in view of others without authorised access
  • Sending your personal information to another recipient by mistake
  • Accessing your data without authorisation or a valid medical reason

Private Medical Companies Who Have Breached Data Privacy Laws

In this section, we’ll present a real case study of a data breach suffered by a private healthcare organisation to illustrate how an HCA Healthcare data breach could happen.

In 2017, BUPA discovered that one of its employees had copied data of over 500,000 of its customers without authorization and sold it on the dark web. The information related to their health insurance policies, so thankfully no financial or medical details were compromised.

Customers affected were contacted by BUPA and informed about what information they believe had been inappropriately shared with third-parties, including:

  • Names
  • Addresses
  • Dates of birth
  • Nationalities
  • Contact details

The employee responsible was dismissed and the incident was reported to the ICO. BUPA was subsequently fined £175,000 for their ineffective data security measures and has later taken steps to improve its data protection practices.

Sources:

  • www.bupa.com/corporate/who-we-are/customer-update

Complaining About A Private Health Company To The Information Commissioner’s Office

If you’ve suffered an HCA Healthcare data breach, you may wish to contact the organisation responsible for it directly. However you address your concerns, it’s important to state that you expect them to compensate you for the damage you’ve suffered at their hands. Even if they don’t provide you with any compensation, any admission of failure to uphold their duty of care to you could be used against them to strengthen your claim.

To further support your claim, you could report the data breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). As an independent organisation policing whether data protection regulations are being adhered to, the ICO could investigate your concerns if you report them within 3 months of your breach.

If an ICO investigation finds HCA Healthcare’s failings to be responsible for your data breach, then these findings could be used to help evidence your claim. However, please be aware that the ICO does not provide data breach victims compensation.

How Could I Be Compensated If Affected By A Data Breach?

Generally, compensation for a data breach claim is calculated according to two types of damage that the claimant may have suffered: material damage and non-material damage.

  • Material damage can be claimed for any financial losses that your data breach may have caused you. If your bank details were compromised, then this could have placed you at risk of theft or even identity fraud. This could result in irreparable damage being caused to your credit rating and has the potential to create permanent problems.
  • Non-material damage can be claimed for any mental harm that your data breach may have caused you. Having your privacy violated could lead to psychological distress and even have a wider effect on other aspects of your life, struggling with things like sleeping and functioning as you did before.

For more information on valuing non-material damage in a data breach claim, please continue reading this guide. On the other hand, why not get a free consultation from one of our specialist advisors today to receive an estimated settlement figure for your possible HCA Healthcare data breach claim.

Calculating Compensation For Data Breach Claims Against HCA Healthcare

If you’ve fallen victim to a data breach, it’s common to incur some sort of subsequent damage as a result of your personal information being compromised. You may have experienced financial losses or suffered identity theft. Alternatively, your data breach may have caused you emotional distress.

But are you aware that you could be entitled to compensation for any damage that your HCA Healthcare data breach has caused you? Providing that someone breached their duty of care to you leading you to suffer, you could be able to make a claim against them.

Whereas data breach claims used to require financial losses in order for any compensation to be awarded, this all changed in 2015. Following the Vidal-Hall and others v Google Inc case, any mental harm caused by your data breach can now be compensated, regardless of whether you incurred any financial shortfall.

In other words, non-material damage can be compensated as part of a data breach claim, regardless of whether any material damage was caused.

Compensation for data breach victims can be calculated in line with personal injury claims, using estimated settlement figures from the Judicial College Guidelines for guidance. Feel free to view the table just below to view examples of awards for non-material damage:

 

Edit
Suffering Severity Compensation Details
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Severe £56,180 to £94,470 Your trauma will infringe on many aspects of your life, including your ability to function as normal, resulting in a poor prognosis.
Psychiatric Damage Severe £51,460 to £108,620 You will be experiencing significant persistent issues in regards to your trauma, with a poor prognosis.
Psychiatric Damage Less severe Up to £5,500 You will find daily activities difficult and experience sleeping problems as a result of your mental health, but your prognosis will be positive.

 

As you may be able to tell from the table above, compensation is valued based on the extent of suffering caused to the claimant. To help determine this, your solicitor will send you for a medical assessment with an independent expert. Their report will determine how they believe your data breach has impacted your life, examining aspects like your relationships, career and ability to function as before.

If you’d like an estimated compensation figure that you can rely on, please contact us now for a free consultation.

No Win No Fee Data Breach Claims Against HCA Healthcare

Suffering from a data breach can be extremely stressful, particularly if personally identifiable and sensitive information like your medical records and contact details have been compromised.

In addition, it’s common to experience financial losses as a result of a data breach, as your financial information could have fallen into the wrong hands in the process. If this is the case, then pursuing compensation for the shortfall that you’ve suffered may seem unattainable given the financial risk associated with making a claim.

We know that data breach victims should never have to suffer for something that wasn’t their fault, particularly if someone else was responsible for it. So, to ease this sense of financial anxiety that many claimants face, our solicitors at Legal Expert always work on a No Win No Fee basis. 

If you’ve never heard of this type of agreement before, here are some key benefits that make them so popular:

  • If your solicitor doesn’t win your compensation for you, then they don’t charge any fees
  • There are no hidden costs to pay at any stage of your claim

By getting in touch, you could receive a free consultation with one of our specialist advisors today. If they feel that you have a valid claim, they’ll connect you with one of our solicitors to handle your case on a No Win No Fee basis. 

If your solicitor wins compensation for you, they’ll take a small ‘success fee’ from your payout. But to ensure there aren’t any surprises to worry about, this fee is capped by law so you still walk away with the compensation that you deserve.

How Do I Find A Lawyer Handling Data Breach Claims

If you find a lawyer to handle your HCA Healthcare data breach claim, the knowledge and expertise that they will bring to your case could not only improve its chances of success but increase the amount of compensation that you could receive in your settlement.

But how do you find the right legal help for you? Well, you could ask your family and friends for their personal recommendations, take a trip to your local high street to find a firm near you or browse online reviews to see which services are recommended.

On the other hand, you could save yourself the time and hassle by contacting Legal Expert today. Our solicitors have years of experience handling claims and securing their clients the compensation that they deserve, so why not see how we may be able to help you? If you’re unsure, head over to our reviews page to see how our past clients recommend our services.

Speak To Our Team

If you’re interested in making an HCA Healthcare data breach claim, please contact our team at Legal Expert today.

One of our specialist advisors can assess your situation for you, free of charge, and tell you whether you have a claim or not. If they believe that you could be entitled to compensation, they can connect you with one of our solicitors to handle your case on a No Win No Fee basis and begin your claim on your behalf.

Our team is available 24/7, so why wait to get in touch and see what we could do for you?

Quick Extra Resources

This concludes this guide to making an HCA Healthcare data breach claim. We hope you’ve found our advice useful and have a better understanding of how to successfully secure the compensation that you deserve.

To learn more, please speak with our team at Legal Expert today to see how our solicitors could assist you or refer to the additional resources below:

For access to data protection regulations in full, please click the links below:

Other Useful Compensation Guides

Thank you for reading our guide about HCA Healthcare data breach, where we answered questions such as ‘what is a healthcare data breach?’