The Montana 1st Judicial District Court is allowing State Auditor and Insurance Commissioner James Brown to move forward with his investigation of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana’s Conduent data breach.
In an April 16 news release, the auditor said BCBS Montana’s parent company, Health Care Service Corp., filed a lawsuit against his office, but that was shut down. The release said the court found BCBS Montana “did not exhaust administrative remedies before initiating a judicial challenge to the agency’s investigative process.”
“My office is fully committed to protecting Montana consumers and ensuring transparency when their sensitive personal and health information is put at risk,” Mr. Brown said. “It’s troubling that Blue Cross filed a lawsuit against my office seeking a court order to stop us, as their regulator, from even investigating the data breach that impacted hundreds of thousands of Montanans and BCBSMT’s public notification of the breach. They failed in court and Montana consumers won as a result.”
Health Care Service Corp. owns BCBS Montana and other Blues plans, such as BCBS Texas. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating BCBS Texas over the Conduent data breach, as well.
A previous hearing sought to determine whether the insurer followed Montana timely reporting laws, even though Conduent is a third-party business services provider. A news release regarding the hearing said evidence pointed to BCBS Montana knowing about a possible breach in January 2025, but Mr. Brown did not learn of the incident until Oct. 8, 2025. Montana opened a query regarding the breach that month.
Mr. Brown confirmed data was exposed from Oct. 21, 2024, to Jan. 13, 2025. According to a February update from Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, the Conduent data breach hit at least 25 million individuals across the U.S. Mr. Brown said the breach could have impacted 462,000 Montanans.
BCBS Montana told Becker’s it does not comment on pending litigation.
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