Wayne Memorial Hospital’s data-breach settlement closes its claim window on December 7, 2026, and the administrator, CPT Group, says a claim form is the only way to receive a cash payment. People who file nothing still get a credit monitoring code, but no cash. The case covers files that may have been accessed between about May 30 and June 3, 2024.
The class is anyone whose private information was accessible because of the incident, which the hospital discovered on or around June 3, 2024. Notices went out on or around August 27, 2025, each with a monitoring enrollment code. The defendant, Wayne Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, Inc., doing business as Wayne Memorial Hospital, denies the allegations in the lawsuit, Bates v. Wayne Memorial Hospital.
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Cash Payment A: up to $5,000, but only with paper behind it
The long-form notice sets Cash Payment A, for documented losses, at up to $5,000 per class member. The loss must be tied to fraud or identity theft from the incident, be actual and unreimbursed, and have happened on or after the incident date. It also has to be more likely than not caused by the breach.
Proof is strict. Claimants must show reasonable but unsuccessful efforts to avoid or recover the loss, and the notice says personal certifications, declarations or affidavits do not count as proper documentation. Losses already reimbursed elsewhere, including by a credit monitoring provider, are not covered.
Cash Payment B: an estimated $25 that can shrink
Cash Payment B is the alternative: an estimated $25.00 with no documentation, offered in place of Cash Payment A. The word estimated matters. The notice ties payments to a $300,000.00 settlement cap, and if claims exceed it, Cash Payment B amounts are reduced pro rata.
So the $25 is a target, not a promise. If Payment B claims run past the cap, each check shrinks by the same proportion. The notice states no total fund amount, and the cap is the only dollar limit it gives for the pool.
The administrator’s FAQ puts the rule on cash in one line: submitting a claim form by December 7, 2026 is the only way to receive a cash payment. Skipping it means a monitoring code and nothing else, though the person stays in the class and is bound by the settlement if the court approves it.
Monitoring, objections and the hearing in Jesup
All class members may enroll in two years of single-bureau credit monitoring with $1,000,000 in identity theft insurance, the settlement’s credit monitoring page says. The code that came with the notice cannot be redeemed until after the Effective Date.
If no one objects, the Effective Date is one day after the court enters final approval. The site says it will post activation instructions then. With the hearing set for January 27, 2027, the code cannot be activated before that date.
The deadline to exclude oneself or to object is November 7, 2026, a month before claims close. Excluding oneself means no monitoring and no cash. An objection that is overruled leaves the person bound by the settlement.
The final fairness hearing is January 27, 2027, at 1:30 p.m. Eastern in the Superior Court of Wayne County, 174 N. Brunswick Street, Jesup, Georgia 31546, Case No. SUCV2025000239. The notice says the date is subject to change.
Payments come only after the court approves the settlement and it becomes final, the notice says, and no payment date is posted. Claims go in through the Submit Claim link on the site, and CPT Group takes questions at 1-888-716-0934 or WMHDataSettlement@cptgroup.com.
Class counsel will ask for up to $525,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs, plus service awards of up to $2,500 for each of seven named plaintiffs, or $17,500 in all. The hospital pays those amounts if the court approves them, and the court may award less.
The Court Documents page posts the settlement agreement, the preliminary approval order, the long-form notice and a printable claim form. Mailed questions go to CPT Group, Inc., PO Box 19504, Irvine, CA 92623.
The timing is stretched. Notices went out on or around August 27, 2025, and claims close more than 15 months later, on December 7, 2026. A class member who set the letter aside in 2025 is working against a deadline that is now six weeks away.
Which Wayne Memorial payment fits a given loss
The two payments answer different situations. A person who lost money to fraud after the incident and kept statements is the one Cash Payment A is written for, up to $5,000. A person with no loss to point to is choosing between an estimated $25 and nothing.
Both are claimed on the same form with the same December 7 deadline, but a documented loss takes time to assemble, and the notice rejects affidavits in place of statements. The estimated $25 can be claimed in minutes, yet it is the one the $300,000 cap can cut.
Holding a Wayne Memorial letter with a December 7 date?
Missing December 7 turns a documented-loss claim of up to $5,000, or an estimated $25, into a monitoring code and nothing more. The dollar terms sit in a long-form notice, which is where a pro rata warning is easiest to skim past.
The Settlement & Refund Recovery System includes the four-date rule for reading a settlement notice and a step-by-step filing walkthrough. The rule is built for notices that stack several dates, as this one does with November 7, December 7 and January 27, and the Excel tracker inside is pre-filled with all 51 state unclaimed-property offices.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
