Change Healthcare seeks to combine 2 dozen breach lawsuits

From Modern Healthcare:

UnitedHealth Group is looking to simplify the legal battle over the Change Healthcare cyberattack.

The conglomerate, which operates Change Healthcare through its Optum subsidiary, wants a judicial body to assign two dozen potential class action lawsuits to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville, according to a brief filed Wednesday.

The pending cases are a mix of claims brought by providers and by patients related to the ransomware attack that has roiled the healthcare sector for more than a month. The providers complain of payment delays. The consumers allege the breach put them at risk of identity theft. Class-action attorneys have publicly been recruiting plaintiffs for these and other cases.