Esse Health Data Breach Settlement: Approved, Not Yet Paid

At a glance

Status

Approved, awaiting payment

Defendant

Esse Health (American Multispecialty Group)

Settlement fund

$2,525,000

Claim deadline

August 4, 2026

No-proof cash option

Yes — ~$50 pro-rata cash (no proof) + 2 years medical identity protection at no cost

Estimated payout

~$50 pro-rata cash (no proof) + 2 years medical identity protection at no cost

Administrator

Simpluris

Official site

essehealthsettlement.com

Court

22nd Judicial Circuit Court of St. Louis City, Missouri

Case number

Clausner et al. v. American Multispecialty Group, No. 2622-CC00414

Last verified September 10, 2026

Key dates

Milestone	Date	What it means
Claim deadline	August 4, 2026(passed)	Last day to file for a payment
Opt-out (exclusion) deadline	July 5, 2026(passed)	Last day to leave the settlement and keep the right to sue
Objection deadline	July 5, 2026(passed)	Last day to object to the terms
Final approval hearing	August 3, 2026(passed)	When the judge decides whether to approve the settlement
Expected payout	Not yet scheduled	Payments are not sent until after final approval and any appeals

Where to file

Esse Health Data Breach Settlement is administered by Simpluris. The only place to file is the official settlement website:

Verify on the official site

essehealthsettlement.com

Filing is free. No legitimate settlement charges a fee to file a claim.

You cannot file on RecordingLaw.com. We are an independent publisher, not the settlement administrator, and we are not affiliated with any court, agency, or defendant.

Esse Health, a multispecialty medical group serving patients in the St. Louis, Missouri area, has agreed to a $2,525,000 class action settlement over a cyberattack the company discovered in 2025. The company's legal name in the lawsuit is American Multispecialty Group. Esse Health notified roughly 521,000 patients that their personal and health information may have been accessed.

The claim window for the Esse Health Data Breach Settlement closed on August 4, 2026, and the administrator can no longer accept new claim forms. The court held its final approval hearing on August 3, 2026, and the administrator now posts a Final Approval Order among the case's court documents. As of September 10, 2026, no payment date has been announced. If you filed in time, the official settlement website is where payment news will appear.

What happened

Esse Health is a multispecialty physician group serving patients in the St. Louis, Missouri region. Its legal name in the underlying lawsuit, Clausner et al. v. American Multispecialty Group, is American Multispecialty Group, the entity that operates Esse Health.

The lawsuit followed a cyberattack Esse Health discovered in 2025. Esse Health sent notice letters to roughly 521,000 patients whose personal and health information may have been accessed in the incident. If you got one of those letters, you are very likely part of the class described below.

Where the settlement stands right now

The case is pending as Clausner et al. v. American Multispecialty Group, case number 2622-CC00414, in the 22nd Judicial Circuit Court of St. Louis City, Missouri. The final approval hearing was held on August 3, 2026, the day before the claim deadline, and the court granted final approval; the administrator's court documents now include a Final Approval Order. As of September 10, 2026, no payment date has been announced.

That timing mattered in two ways. First, the August 4, 2026 claim deadline applied regardless of what happened at that hearing, so anyone who waited for the court to rule missed it. Second, no payout date has been set. Money generally cannot move until after final approval and any appeal period, and while the court has now granted approval, the administrator had announced no payment date as of September 10, 2026.

The deadline to exclude yourself from the settlement, also called opting out, was July 5, 2026, and has already passed. Opting out means leaving the class entirely: you keep the right to sue over this breach on your own, but you give up any right to a payment from this fund. The deadline to object, meaning stay in the class while telling the court you think some part of the settlement is unfair, was also July 5, 2026, and has passed too. Opting out and objecting are different choices, even though both deadlines landed on the same date here.

Who's in the class

The class is the roughly 521,000 Esse Health patients the company notified about the 2025 cyberattack. That's a specific, testable question: did Esse Health send you a notice letter about this incident?

If you got a letter, you don't need to guess further. If you think you should have received one and didn't, or you're not sure, contact the settlement administrator, Simpluris, through the official settlement website rather than assuming either way.

How much you might actually get

The settlement fund is $2,525,000. Every valid claim draws from that same pool, so payments are pro rata: the more people who file, the smaller each payment tends to be, and the final numbers aren't locked in until claims close and the court approves fees and costs.

Most eligible class members can choose a no-proof cash payment, estimated at about $50, without submitting any documentation. Based on the settlement's own FAQ, this settlement does not offer a separate, higher-dollar tier for people with larger, provable out-of-pocket losses; the no-proof cash payment is the payment option available here.

The cash isn't the only benefit. Every class member is also eligible for two years of medical identity protection at no cost, separate from whether you file a cash claim. It is not fully automatic: Esse Health mailed or emailed enrollment codes to class members, and you have to activate the coverage with your code. The administrator says the CyEx Medical Shield Complete code from your notice letter becomes active on September 12, 2026, and the deadline to enroll is January 10, 2027. That protection is worth taking seriously given this was a healthcare provider breach. Medical identity theft, someone using your identity to obtain care, prescriptions, or insurance benefits in your name, can be harder to untangle than ordinary credit card fraud.

None of these figures is a promise. They're estimates from a common fund, and what you'd actually receive depends on how many people file and what the court ultimately approves.

What proof you need

For the no-proof cash payment, you don't submit documentation. Filing a timely, accurate claim form is what matters. The settlement's FAQ doesn't describe a separate, documented-loss reimbursement tier for this particular settlement, so the no-proof cash option is the payment path available to class members.

The two years of medical identity protection is free for class members, but you have to activate it using the enrollment code Esse Health sent you by mail or email, and those codes become active September 12, 2026, with enrollment closing January 10, 2027. You generally don't need to file a separate claim for it beyond being a notified class member.

How to file

Filing was free, and it only happened on the official settlement website. Neither Esse Health nor RecordingLaw reviews or processes claims. A court-appointed administrator, Simpluris, handles that.

The claim deadline was August 4, 2026, and it has passed. If you filed in time, essehealthsettlement.com is where the administrator posts final approval and payment updates, and it is also where the free medical identity protection is activated. No legitimate part of this process will ever ask you to pay a fee to receive money you're owed.

Protect yourself first, whether or not you file

This was a healthcare provider breach, which is a distinct category. Federal law separately requires healthcare providers to notify patients and the government when protected health information is exposed, on a timeline that runs independently of this settlement's claim process.

Start with a free credit freeze at all three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. A freeze blocks new accounts from being opened in your name, and it costs nothing to place or lift, at any bureau, at any time. RecordingLaw's guide to freezing your credit after a data breach walks through the steps at each bureau.

After that, use IdentityTheft.gov, the Federal Trade Commission's free recovery site, if you notice signs your information is being misused, medical or otherwise. Keep an eye on the explanation-of-benefits statements from your health insurer, as well as your bank and credit card statements, since medical identity fraud doesn't always surface the same way ordinary credit fraud does.

If this isn't the breach you're looking for

Esse Health is one of several recent healthcare-related settlements. If you're checking whether a different notice letter matches a settlement you can file against, RecordingLaw's data breach settlement tracker lists other currently open claims and their deadlines.