Breach filing
ArchivedWellCare Health Plans, Inc.: 26,942 individuals, Sep 2018.
WellCare Health Plans, Inc. reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 14 September 2018. The filing records the organisation as a health plan in Florida and lists 26,942 individuals affected, which makes it the 123rd largest of the 463 Florida filings on the register and the 56th largest of the 369 filings submitted nationally in 2018. Among the 19 Florida filings made in 2018 it ranks 6th.
Individuals affected
26,942
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$4.31M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in FL
123rd
of 463 Florida filings
Rank in 2018
56th
of 369 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
- 26,942
- Breach submission date
- 14 September 2018
- Submission year
- 2018
- Type of breach
- Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
- Location of breached information
- Paper/Films
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Florida (FL)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Florida by size
- 123rd of 463
- Rank in 2018 nationally
- 56th of 369
- Florida median filing
- 4,912 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- FL-20180914-wellcare-health-plans
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Florida and in 2018
OCR classifies the incident as unauthorized access or disclosure, with the breached information held in paper records or films. Unauthorized Access/Disclosure is the type recorded on 119 of the 463 Florida filings (26%) and on 38% of all filings submitted in 2018. Paper/Films appears on 15% of Florida filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 25% of Florida filings do involve one. At 26,942 individuals the breach is 5.5 times the Florida median filing of 4,912 and 6.7 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 26,942 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 $4.31M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $5.17M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by WellCare Health Plans, Inc.. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.8 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.
On July 25, 2018, the covered entity (CE), WellCare Health Plans, began receiving phone calls from members complaining that they had received a letter containing another member's protected health information (PHI). The CE investigated and determined that between January 20, 2018, and June 20, 2018, appointment reminder letters for 26,942 members were mistakenly sent to the wrong members. The letters contained name, age, Medicaid number, healthcare providers, and a general reason for the appointment. Following the incident, the CE sanctioned the responsible staff members by terminating one individual, and retraining the other on HIPAA requirements. The CE also reviewed and updated its policies and procedures. As a result of OCR's investigation, the CE created a new, automated procedure for mail reminder letters. The CE also provided breach notification to HHS, the affected individuals, substitute notice for affected members that couldn't be located, and notice to the media.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
26,942 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$4.31M
26,942 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$5.17M
26,942 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by WellCare Health Plans, Inc. 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 2018, topped up from other years where 2018 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MedWatch LLC | Business Associate | 40,621 | 27 Apr 2018 | |||
| Agency for Health Care Administration | Health Plan | 30,000 | 5 Jan 2018 | |||
| Orlando Orthopaedic Center | Healthcare Provider | 19,101 | 20 Jul 2018 | |||
| David G. Simon, DMD, PA, d/b/a Simon Orthodontics | Healthcare Provider | 15,129 | 31 Aug 2018 |
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 4734.
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.