Premera Blue Cross $74 Million Data Breach Settlement: Payout Status

Who qualifies

• You are one of the more than 10 million people whose personal information was stored on Premera Blue Cross network systems compromised in the breach disclosed on March 17, 2015.
• The class was nationwide, though roughly 6.4 million affected people were in Washington state, where Premera is based; Alaska and other states were also heavily represented.
• You had to file a valid claim before the March 30, 2020 deadline. Claimants chose either two extra years of credit monitoring and identity protection, or a $50 cash alternative — plus reimbursement of documented out-of-pocket losses.
• The claim window is closed and no new claims are accepted; the settlement is fully resolved.

Premera settlement payout status — what happens now

1. 1

   The claim window closed in March 2020

   The deadline to file was March 30, 2020. If your data was in the breach and you did not file by then, you are not entitled to a payment. There is no way to submit a new Premera claim in 2026 — the settlement is fully closed and distributed.

2. 2

   The court approved the $74 million settlement in March 2020

   Judge Michael H. Simon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon granted final approval on March 2, 2020 in In re Premera Blue Cross Customer Data Security Breach Litigation. The $74 million total split into a $32 million class fund and a $42 million commitment to fund data-security improvements over the following years.

3. 3

   Appeals delayed the checks into 2021

   Under the settlement terms, benefits were held until any appeals concluded. Objector appeals pushed distribution back, so checks that might otherwise have gone out in 2020 were, as local coverage put it, 'finally in the mail' around 2021.

4. 4

   Most cash payments were about $13; losses covered up to $10,000

   Because valid claims exceeded the cash portion of the fund, the flat cash payment was pro-rated down to just under $13 for most claimants. Separately, people with documented out-of-pocket losses from the breach could recover up to $10,000, and time spent dealing with the breach was reimbursed at $20 per hour ($100 without proof, up to $400 with proof).

5. 5

   Never miss the next data breach settlement — ClaimBee alerts you

   Health-data breaches keep happening, and their settlement claim windows are easy to miss. ClaimBee scans 2,000+ cases, matches them to your profile, and tracks every deadline so you file the next one before it closes.

Frequently asked questions