McLaren Health Care Corp., a large Michigan nonprofit system with 14 hospitals and hundreds of other sites, agreed to a $14 million class action settlement after two separate cybersecurity incidents—one in late summer 2023 and another in mid-to-late summer 2024—allegedly exposed current and former patients’ personal data. Healthcare organizations are frequent targets because patient information can enable identity theft, insurance fraud, and medical identity misuse, and hospitals often rely on complex networks of clinical and billing systems that expand the “attack surface.” People who received breach notices from McLaren are generally included in the settlement class and may seek compensation for documented out-of-pocket losses (up to $5,000), a pro-rated cash payment without documentation, and a year of credit monitoring and identity restoration services. The lawsuit (Womack-Devereaux, et al. v. McLaren Health Care Corp.) was filed on the theory that McLaren failed to use reasonable cybersecurity measures to prevent foreseeable attacks and to safeguard sensitive patient information; McLaren denies wrongdoing but opted to settle, which is common in data-breach litigation where the costs and uncertainty of trial can be high. The case is significant because it reflects the growing expectation—by consumers, regulators, and courts—that healthcare entities treat security as a core patient-safety and privacy function, not just an IT issue, and because the settlement structure (reimbursement for provable losses plus credit monitoring) mirrors what many victims actually need after a breach. More broadly, this settlement fits into a wave of healthcare breach class actions against hospitals, insurers, and vendors, often alleging inadequate security controls, delayed detection, or insufficient incident response planning. Industry obligations are shaped by HIPAA’s Privacy and Security Rules and the HITECH Act’s breach notification requirements, which require administrative, technical, and physical safeguards and timely notice when protected health information is compromised; regulators such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights can also investigate and impose corrective action plans or penalties separate from private lawsuits. As these cases accumulate, they continue to push healthcare systems toward stronger security governance, vendor risk management, encryption and access controls, and more rigorous monitoring to reduce the likelihood—and the legal and financial fallout—of repeat incidents.