Group Health Plan (GHP), under the auspices of HealthPartners and Virtuwell, is the defendant in a class action lawsuit related to the mishandling of customer data.
If you were a client of GHP, you may fall under the class action lawsuit.
HealthPartners And Virtuwell Class Action Lawsuit
If you visited the HealthPartners and Virtuwell websites between January 1, 2018 and November 10, 2023, your personal information may have been shared with third parties.
Currently, Group Health Plan is denying the allegations. You can read more about the case here.
If you believe your personal, sensitive data may have been breached, there is still time to file a claim. The Claim Form can be found here.
If you submit a Claim Form by April 7, 2025, you may receive a pro rata share of the Net Settlement Fund as compensation. If you don’t do anything, you will not receive any settlement benefits. However, you will still be bound by the settlement as it relates to the use and storage of data.
How Do Class Action Lawsuits Work?
Class action law has evolved over the last few decades. But there are specific rules binding class actions, known as Rule 23 in the federal rules for civil procedures. The Legal Information Institute lays out what the court must find in order to approve a class action:
- The number of class members renders it impracticable to join them in the action
- The class members’ claims share common questions of law or fact
- The claims or defenses of the proposed class representatives are typical of those for the rest of the class, and
- The proposed class representatives will adequately protect the interests of the entire class.
In short, multiple plaintiffs must all have sufficiently similar claims of damage, such that a ruling would largely have the same affect on all class members. The question is then before the court: have all these plaintiffs indeed suffered similar harm from the defendant?
How Long Do Class Action Lawsuits Take
Again, the answer is: it depends on the case.
In some cases, the answer is 10 minutes! Defendants can try to end the case before it even begins by settling with the plaintiffs – typically this means payments. According to Top Class Actions, settlements can typically take up to nine months or a year.
However, if class actions go to trial, the timeline becomes years long – typically two or three years, according to the Cochran Firm.