Anthem Reaches $16M Data Breach Settlement With HHS

Anthem Inc. has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a federal investigation into potential violations of a health data privacy law, the Department of Health and Human Services said.

The Indianapolis-based health insurer also agreed to “take substantial corrective action” to settle the probe under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the department’s Office for Civil Rights said an Oct. 15 statement.

“The largest health data breach in U.S. history fully merits the largest HIPAA settlement in history,” OCR Director Roger Severino said in the office’s statement. “Unfortunately, Anthem failed to implement appropriate measures for detecting hackers ...