Breach filing
ArchivedUnited Healthcare Services, Inc. Single Affiliated Covered Entity: 315,915 individuals, Sep 2023.
United Healthcare Services, Inc. Single Affiliated Covered Entity reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 7 September 2023. The filing records the organisation as a health plan in Connecticut and lists 315,915 individuals affected, which makes it the 9th largest of the 144 Connecticut filings on the register and the 84th largest of the 746 filings submitted nationally in 2023. Among the 16 Connecticut filings made in 2023 it ranks 2nd.
Individuals affected
315,915
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$50.5M
Upper bound, method shown
Rank in CT
9th
of 144 Connecticut filings
Rank in 2023
84th
of 746 filings nationally
Section F.1 / The filing
As posted by HHS OCR
Every value below is the portal's own field for this filing, plus its rank within the register.
- Covered entity type
- Health Plan
- Individuals affected
- 315,915
- Breach submission date
- 7 September 2023
- Submission year
- 2023
- Type of breach
- Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
- Location of breached information
- Network Server
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Connecticut (CT)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Connecticut by size
- 9th of 144
- Rank in 2023 nationally
- 84th of 746
- Connecticut median filing
- 5,000 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- CT-20230907-united-healthcare-services-single-affili
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Connecticut and in 2023
OCR classifies the incident as unauthorized access or disclosure, with the breached information held in a network server. Unauthorized Access/Disclosure is the type recorded on 34 of the 144 Connecticut filings (24%) and on 16% of all filings submitted in 2023. Network Server appears on 44% of Connecticut filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 35% of Connecticut filings do involve one. At 315,915 individuals the breach is 63 times the Connecticut median filing of 5,000 and 79 times the national median of 4,000 across all 7,884 filings. It is one of 801 filings of 100,000 or more individuals.
As of 28 August 2026 the case is listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive. OCR's closing summary of the case is reproduced in full below.
Connecticut's breach notification statute (Conn. Gen. Stat. 36a-701b) requires notice to affected residents without unreasonable delay, no later than 60 days after discovery. Its attorney general threshold: all breaches (no minimum resident threshold). The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule ran alongside it: notice to affected individuals and to HHS without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery, which is the clock that put this filing on the portal.
Multiplying 315,915 individuals by IBM's $160 customer-PII cost per record (Cost of a Data Breach 2025, the figure the site's calculator uses) gives a modelled $50.5M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $60.7M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by United Healthcare Services, Inc. Single Affiliated Covered Entity. Because the filing is above the roughly 100,000-record range in which the per-record figure is reliable, the result is an upper bound, not an estimate: fixed costs are spread across far more records at this scale.
Section F.3 / OCR closing summary
The portal's archived description, in full
Written by the Office for Civil Rights when the case was closed and reproduced verbatim from the HHS export.
The covered entity (CE), United Healthcare Services, reported that it experienced a hacking attack that affected the protected health information (PHI) of 315,915 individuals. The PHI involved included names and health insurance information. The CE notified HHS, the affected individuals, the media, and posted substitute notice. In response to the breach, the CE implemented additional physical, technical, and security safeguards to better protect its PHI.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
315,915 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
Upper boundIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$50.5M
315,915 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$60.7M
315,915 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by United Healthcare Services, Inc. Single Affiliated Covered Entity to HHS, multiplied by IBM's customer-PII cost per record (Cost of a Data Breach 2025 Figure 6 and the 2026 edition). No cost has been disclosed by the entity for this filing; the figure is a planning estimate, not a fact about the breach. IBM's per-record figures come from mid-volume breaches and IBM cautions against applying them to breaches involving millions of records; the site's per-record page explains where the multiplication holds and where it breaks down.
Context: IBM's average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M in the 2026 report ($7.42M in 2025); the global average across all sectors was $4.44M in 2025.
Cost per record: method and limits / Healthcare breach cost, IBM 2026
Section F.6 / Notification clock
Connecticut statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Connecticut: Conn. Gen. Stat. 36a-701b
- Notice to individuals
- Without unreasonable delay, no later than 60 days after discovery
- Attorney general threshold
- All breaches (no minimum resident threshold) (No later than the time notice is provided to affected residents)
- Private right of action
- No: Non-compliance is an unfair trade practice; only the AG enforces
- Penalty
- Up to $5,000 per willful violation under CUTPA, plus injunctive relief and restitution
The HIPAA Breach Notification Rule runs alongside the state statute: notice to affected individuals and to HHS without unreasonable delay and no later than 60 days after discovery.
Section F.7 / Peer filings
Connecticut filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Connecticut filings in 2023, topped up from other years where 2023 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Healthcare Services, Inc. Single Affiliated Covered Entity | Health Plan | 398,319 | 28 Jul 2023 | |||
| Merritt Healthcare Advisors | Business Associate | 88,740 | 15 Mar 2023 | |||
| United Healthcare Services, Inc. Single Affiliated Covered Entity | Health Plan | 26,561 | 5 May 2023 |
Index / Companion schedules
13 HHS breach register
→Hub: every filing, by state, year and entity.
04 Biggest breaches
→Mega-breaches with primary-source cost figures.
Industry / Healthcare
→IBM 2026: $6.64M average, 13 years at #1.
Regulation / HIPAA penalties
→OCR enforcement tiers and the 60-day rule.
11 50-state laws
→Deadline, AG threshold and penalties per state.
Cost / Per record
→Where the per-record model is reliable.
Provenance
Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights, Breach Portal (breaches affecting 500 or more individuals), retrieved 2026-08-28. Public domain. Individuals affected and dates as reported by the covered entity.
Portal: ocrportal.hhs.gov breach report. Statutory basis: HITECH Act section 13402(e)(4): the Secretary must post a list of breaches of unsecured protected health information affecting 500 or more individuals. Breaches affecting fewer than 500 individuals are reported to OCR annually and are not posted, so they are not on this register. Status wording follows the portal's two tabs ("Cases Currently Under Investigation" and "Archive") as of 28 August 2026; a filing moves to the archive when OCR closes the case. Modelled costs on this site are a method applied to the reported count, using IBM Cost of a Data Breach per-record figures, and are never a cost disclosed by the entity. This row: hhs-breach-archive__2026-08-28.csv, export row 1519.
Corrections: if you represent a listed entity and the portal row has been amended, email [email protected] with the portal entry and we will re-pull the export.