The Eastern Radiologists settlement is a $3.2 million class action resolution over a 2023 data breach, and as of early 2026 payments have not been distributed. The claim deadline passed on December 1, 2025, but the North Carolina Business Court declined to grant final approval at the December 15 hearing and appointed a referee to review the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fee request. No payout date has been announced.
Why Payments Are Delayed
Final approval is the gate. Until Judge Matthew T. Houston signs off on the settlement, enters judgment, and the appeal window closes, the claims administrator cannot cut checks. That gate is currently blocked by a dispute over how much of the $3.2 million fund goes to the lawyers.
Plaintiffs’ counsel asked for $1.5 million in fees, $27,934 in expenses, and $2,500 service awards for each of the sixteen named plaintiffs. The court found “ample reason for concern,” calling the supporting material “unsupported by sufficient competent, non-conclusory evidence.”
The core problem was valuation. Counsel pegged the total settlement value at $4.5 million by assigning a retail price of roughly $1.59 million to the CyEx Medical Shield monitoring benefit offered to class members, using a $179.40 per-person figure and a 1% redemption rate. Eastern Radiologists actually paid $50,000 in bulk for that service. Judge Houston called the inflated figure “patently unreasonable” and noted the court had seen no evidence any class member suffered material harm from the breach, describing the injury as “purely technical in nature.” Some attorneys had also submitted billing rates as high as $1,600 per hour.
On February 26, 2026, the court appointed former North Carolina Business Court Judge Gregory P. McGuire as a referee to conduct an independent accounting and issue a report and recommendation on the fees and expenses. Plaintiffs’ counsel agreed to personally cover the referee’s $425-per-hour cost rather than pull it from the settlement fund. The settlement itself has not been rejected; it is waiting on that report.
What Class Members Who Filed a Claim Can Expect
Claimants who filed by December 1, 2025 chose one of two cash options, not both:
- A pro rata share of the common fund after deductions for administration, fees, and service awards. The settlement agreement estimated this at roughly $50 per person, subject to final claim numbers.
- Up to $5,000 in reimbursement for documented out-of-pocket losses traceable to the breach and incurred on or after November 20, 2023, such as identity theft expenses, credit freeze and monitoring fees, postage, and mileage. Third-party documentation was required. This pool is funded separately by the defendant but can be reduced proportionally if valid claims exceed $200,000.
Either option could be paired with one year of free medical account monitoring through CyEx Medical Shield, which includes dark web monitoring, authentication alerts, and a $1 million medical identity theft insurance policy.
How much a pro rata payment actually turns out to be depends partly on what the referee recommends and the court ultimately approves for fees. A smaller fee award leaves more in the fund for claimants.
What to Do Now
If you filed a claim, there is nothing further to submit. The official settlement website advises class members to “be patient and check this website for updates.”
If your address, phone, or email has changed since you filed, update the claims administrator so a check or notice does not go astray. Contact information:
- Eastern Radiologists Data Incident, Claims Administrator, P.O. Box 3076, Portland, OR 97208-3076
- 1-888-884-2391
- Info@EasternRadiologistsSettlement.com
Any settlement funds that go unclaimed or uncashed will be directed to a court-approved cy pres recipient, though no specific organization has been identified in available filings.
Background on the Breach
Between November 20 and November 24, 2023, an intruder accessed Eastern Radiologists’ computer network and copied files containing patient information. The practice, headquartered in Greenville, North Carolina, detected the intrusion on November 24. Compromised data included names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, financial account numbers, contact information, health insurance details, medical record numbers, dates of service, diagnoses, and imaging results.
The breach affected approximately 886,746 individuals according to HIPAA Journal reporting. Eastern Radiologists reported the incident to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights and began mailing notices on March 4, 2024. Only individuals who received one of those notices were identified as class members; people who did not receive a notice were not eligible under the settlement, and anyone who opted out by October 28, 2025 gave up settlement benefits but kept the right to sue on their own.
The consolidated case, Powers et al. v. Eastern Radiologists, Inc. (Case No. 24-CVS-772), is pending in the North Carolina Business Court. Eastern Radiologists denied all claims and wrongdoing; the parties mediated on March 11, 2025 and reached the $3.2 million agreement that received preliminary approval on July 15, 2025.