North Carolina is participating in two major national healthcare legal settlements involving insurer Anthem and surgical product manufacturer C.R. Bard Inc.
Josh Stein, North Carolina’s attorney general, said Wednesday the state will receive $401,172 from a $39.5 million multi-state statement to resolve the 2014 data breach that compromised the personal information of 78.8 million Americans, including 775,606 North Carolinians.
Separately, the state is part of a $60 million multi-state settlement with C.R. Bard Inc. and parent company Becton, Dickinson and Co. for the “deceptive marketing” of transvaginal surgical mesh devices. North Carolina’s share of this settlement was not disclosed.
In February 2015, Anthem disclosed that cyber attackers had infiltrated its systems beginning in February 2014 using malware installed through a phishing email.
The attackers gained access to Anthem’s data warehouse, where they harvested names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, health care identification numbers, home addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and employment information.
Anthem has agreed to a series of provisions designed to strengthen its security practices that include: not misrepresenting the extent to which Anthem protects the privacy and security of personal information; and implementing a comprehensive information security program.