Breach filing
ArchivedNorthwest Broward Orthopaedics Associates: 53,892 individuals, Dec 2021.
Northwest Broward Orthopaedics Associates reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 17 December 2021. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Florida and lists 53,892 individuals affected, which makes it the 84th largest of the 463 Florida filings on the register and the 125th largest of the 715 filings submitted nationally in 2021. Among the 39 Florida filings made in 2021 it ranks 11th.
Individuals affected
53,892
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$8.62M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in FL
84th
of 463 Florida filings
Rank in 2021
125th
of 715 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
- Healthcare Provider
- Individuals affected
- 53,892
- Breach submission date
- 17 December 2021
- Submission year
- 2021
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Desktop Computer, Network Server
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Florida (FL)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Florida by size
- 84th of 463
- Rank in 2021 nationally
- 125th of 715
- Florida median filing
- 4,912 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- FL-20211217-northwest-broward-orthopaedics-associate
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Florida and in 2021
OCR classifies the incident as a hacking or IT incident, with the breached information held in a desktop computer and a network server. Hacking/IT Incident is the type recorded on 256 of the 463 Florida filings (55%) and on 76% of all filings submitted in 2021. Desktop Computer appears on 6% of Florida filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 25% of Florida filings do involve one. At 53,892 individuals the breach is 11 times the Florida median filing of 4,912 and 13 times the national median of 4,000 across all 7,884 filings. It sits in the 10,000 to 99,999 band, which holds 1,938 filings.
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.
Florida's breach notification statute (Fla. Stat. 501.171) requires notice to affected residents within 30 days of determining a breach occurred (up to 15-day extension for good cause). Its attorney general threshold: 500 or more Florida residents. 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 53,892 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 $8.62M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $10.3M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Northwest Broward Orthopaedics Associates. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 1.6 times the sector average.
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), Northwest Broward Orthopaedics Associates, reported that it experienced a ransomware incident that affected the protected health information (PHI) of 53,892 individuals. The PHI involved included names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers and financial information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and posted substitute notice on its website. In response to the breach, the CE implemented additional administrative, technical and security safeguards. In addition, the CE retrained its staff on cybersecurity attack precautions and participated in an outreach conducted by OCR. OCR provided technical assistance regarding the HIPAA Rules.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
53,892 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$8.62M
53,892 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$10.3M
53,892 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Northwest Broward Orthopaedics Associates 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
Florida statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Florida: Fla. Stat. 501.171
Florida Information Protection Act (FIPA)
- Notice to individuals
- Within 30 days of determining a breach occurred (up to 15-day extension for good cause)
- Attorney general threshold
- 500 or more Florida residents (Within 30 days of the breach determination)
- Private right of action
- No: FIPA does not permit direct individual lawsuits; AG enforcement only
- Penalty
- Escalating civil penalties up to $500,000 per breach; also an unfair or deceptive trade practice
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
Florida filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Florida filings in 2021, topped up from other years where 2021 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SalusCare | Healthcare Provider | 85,000 | 19 Mar 2021 | |||
| Leon Medical Centers, LLC | Healthcare Provider | 76,661 | 8 Jan 2021 | |||
| Broward County Public Schools | Health Plan | 49,608 | 29 Nov 2021 | |||
| South Florida Community Care Network LLC d/b/a Community Care Plan | Health Plan | 48,344 | 20 Aug 2021 |
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 2770.
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.