Act quickly: WellPoint/Anthem Blue Cross class action proposed settlement

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

NOTE: Deadline is Wednesday, Sept. 28. Act now!

Victims of the ID Theft Breach at WellPoint/Anthem Blue Cross have until Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2011 to sign up for certain court-ordered benefits under the class action settlement.

If you applied for health insurance through WellPoint/Anthem Blue Cross before March 10, 2010, you could be eligible for benefits in the settlement of a class action lawsuit involving the possible or potential breach of applicants’ personal and financial information. The companies named in the class action and party to the settlement are Anthem Blue Cross of California, Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company, The WellPoint Companies Inc., WellPoint California Services Inc. and WellPoint Behavioral Health Inc.

From at least October 23, 2009 to March 10, 2010, WellPoint/Anthem Blue Cross stored confidential information (including health insurance applications, social security numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, credit card numbers) and other financial information on their website without any user names or passwords or encryption protection. Although WellPoint/Anthem Blue Cross believes there were very few, if any, unknown accesses to the information it publicly disclosed, consumers who filed an application with WellPoint/Anthem Blue Cross since August 2008 were at risk. The court has ordered two years of free ID protection and insurance for all persons who applied for health coverage with WellPoint/Anthem Blue Cross from approximately August 2008 to March 2010. Consumers need to know that although some benefits of the settlement will be received by everyone, consumers who do not apply for the court-ordered two years of free ID theft protection and insurance by Sept. 28, 2011 will forever lose their right to recover this benefit valued at $238.80.

To sign up go to the settlement website:

www.anthembluecrosssecuritysettlement.com

Consumers should also use the e-mail and/or post card they received from the administrator for the WellPoint/Anthem Blue Cross class action settlement within the last two and a half months.

In a settlement, the court does not decide in favor of one side or the other. Instead, both sides agree to settle this case instead of going to trial. This proposed settlement does not mean that any law was broken or that the defendants did anything wrong. (The defendants deny all legal claims in this case.)

As part of the settlement, all affected individuals (class members) may receive and/or benefit from:

• credit monitoring
• identity theft insurance
• additional time to make a claim for identity theft reimbursement
• cash reimbursement for identity theft losses
• out-of-pocket expenses (see below)
• enhanced security measures
• donations to local and national non-profit entities

Out of pocket expenses for some class members may include:

• Up to $90 for paper check printing costs that were required to open a new or change an existing checking account;
• Up to $200 (no more than $20 a month), for the cost of any credit monitoring or identity theft insurance they paid for before free credit monitoring became available to them under the settlement;
• Up to $60 for the cost of telephone calls or the changing of a telephone number, postage relating to inquiries to bank accounts, financial accounts, mortgage accounts, and credit reports, lost time ($10 per hour), and costs associated with freezing a credit report; and
• The cost of replacing a driver’s license.

If you have any questions about this settlement, call 877-527-2354. You also may write to WellPoint/Anthem Blue Cross Security Settlement Administrator, PO Box 6132, Novato, CA 94948-6132.

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