- UnitedHealthcare will pay a $2.5 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit that claims the health insurance company violated a federal telemarketing law.
- Individuals eligible for a claim received a settlement notice via email to mail with instructions on how to file a claim.
- Settlement payments are estimated to be between $350-$1,000 per individual.
UnitedHealthcare has agreed to pay a $2.5 million settlement as a resolution to a class action lawsuit that claims the company made unauthorized telemarketing calls in violation of federal law.
The lawsuit alleges that UnitedHealthcare, a health insurance company, violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a federal law that prohibits companies from using an artificial or prerecorded voice message to make telemarketing calls without a recipient’s prior permission to do so.
The settlement affects over 12,000 individuals.
Here’s what to know about the settlement and who is eligible for payments.
Who is eligible for a settlement payment?
According to the settlement, individuals who received one or more prerecorded phone calls between Jan. 9, 2015 and Jan. 9, 2019 from UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare and retirement non-licensed retention team, community and state national retention team, or Medicare and retirement collections team and were not a UnitedHealthcare member or third party authorized to receive such calls are eligible for a payment.
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Eligible individuals would have received a settlement notice via email or mail.
More:UnitedHealth data hack impacted 1 in 2 Americans; What you can do to protect yourself
How much are the payments?
Payments are estimated to be between $350-$1,000 per individual, according to the settlement. The final amount depends on the number of filed claims.
How do you claim a payment?
Eligible individuals would have received a settlement notice via email or mail informing them how to claim a payment. This notice would have included a unique login code and password to file the claim online.
Claims can be made online via an electronic form or by downloading and printing a PDF and mailing in the claim. Claims must be submitted by April 15, 2025.
What happens if you are eligible and do nothing?
Individuals who are eligible for a settlement payment and do nothing will not receive a payment.
What happens next?
A court will determine whether to grant final approval for the settlement on June 20, 2025.
Settlement follows record-breaking data breach
The UnitedHealthcare settlement follows a record-breaking data breach, in which about 190 million UnitedHealth Group customers may have been affected last February. The breach disrupted the UnitedHealth-owned Change Healthcare for weeks, prohibiting doctors and hospitals from collecting payments when computer systems went down. Customer identifications, bank records and health data were exposed by hackers. Those effected have been contacted and a final number of those impacted will be confirmed at a later date.
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com.