Centene Management, a Medicaid managed care organization, is facing a class action lawsuit for allegedly violating Illinois' biometrics privacy law. The plaintiff, Tameka McFarland, claims that the company improperly scanned workers' faces without their informed written consent.
The suit alleges that Centene illegally collected, stored and used biometric identifiers and information of its employees.
The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) requires companies to inform individuals in writing if their biometric identifiers will be collected or stored, the specific purpose and length of term for which this information will be used, and obtain a written release from the individual. Companies are also required to publish publicly available written retention schedules and guidelines for permanently destroying biometric identifiers and information.
McFarland is seeking class certification on behalf of all others similarly situated who may have had their faces scanned while working for Centene in the past five years.
The lawsuit seeks damages of $1,000-$5,000 per alleged violation, as allowed under the BIPA law. The Illinois Supreme Court has interpreted the BIPA law to define individual violations as each time someone's biometric identifiers are scanned without first abiding by BIPA's notice and consent provisions. The lawsuit does not estimate how many times Centene may have allegedly scanned workers' biometrics. However, it estimates the damages should at least be multiplied across hundreds or even thousands of potential Centene workers over the past five years.
The lawsuit was filed March 25 in Cook County Circuit Court by attorney Michael L. Fradin, of Skokie.