North Carolina Joins Lawsuit Against Health Care Data Company

North Carolina's attorney general is joining a lawsuit against a health data company that allegedly lost private patient data to hackers.

Attorney General Josh Stein announced this week he's joining 11 other states in suing Indiana-based Medical Informatics Engineering for violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, also known as HIPAA.

According to Stein, in May 2015, hackers infiltrated an app called WebChart that's run by MIE. They then stole the private information of nearly 4 million people, including tens of thousands of North Carolinians.

The information potentially included everything from names, to Social Security numbers, to disabilities and medical conditions.

Stein says the state is joining the suit in an effort to push companies to do a better job of protecting private information.

This is the first time that multiple attorneys general have come together to pursue a HIPAA-related data breach case.