Breach filing
ArchivedJones Eye Center, P.C.: 39,605 individuals, Oct 2018.
Jones Eye Center, P.C. reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 22 October 2018. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Iowa and lists 39,605 individuals affected, which makes it the 20th largest of the 98 Iowa filings on the register and the 44th largest of the 369 filings submitted nationally in 2018. Among the 10 Iowa filings made in 2018 it ranks 2nd.
Individuals affected
39,605
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$6.34M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in IA
20th
of 98 Iowa filings
Rank in 2018
44th
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
- Healthcare Provider
- Individuals affected
- 39,605
- Breach submission date
- 22 October 2018
- Submission year
- 2018
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Network Server
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Iowa (IA)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Iowa by size
- 20th of 98
- Rank in 2018 nationally
- 44th of 369
- Iowa median filing
- 4,336 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- IA-20181022-jones-eye-center-pc
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Iowa and in 2018
OCR classifies the incident as a hacking or IT incident, with the breached information held in a network server. Hacking/IT Incident is the type recorded on 66 of the 98 Iowa filings (67%) and on 45% of all filings submitted in 2018. Network Server is the most common location in the state, appearing on 50% of Iowa filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 34% of Iowa filings do involve one. At 39,605 individuals the breach is 9.1 times the Iowa median filing of 4,336 and 9.9 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.
Iowa's breach notification statute (Iowa Code Ch. 715C) requires notice to affected residents in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: 500 or more Iowa 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 39,605 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 $6.34M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $7.60M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Jones Eye Center, P.C.. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 1.1 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.
Jones Eye Center, P.C., the covered entity (CE), reported that its business associate (BA) was the victim of a ransomware attack that affected the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 39,605 individuals. The ePHI involved included names, addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers, clinical information, financial and claims information, diagnoses, and other treatment information. The CEs notified HHS, affected individuals, and the media. In its mitigation efforts, the CE limited the amount of sensitive data available to its BA and implemented new administrative, technical, and security safeguards to better protect its ePHI. All staff were retrained. OCR provided technical assistance regarding the HIPAA Rules.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
39,605 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$6.34M
39,605 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$7.60M
39,605 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Jones Eye Center, P.C. 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
Iowa statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Iowa: Iowa Code Ch. 715C
Personal Information Security Breach Protection Act
- Notice to individuals
- In the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- 500 or more Iowa residents (Within five business days after notifying consumers)
- Private right of action
- No: No private right of action; AG enforcement only
- Penalty
- Unlawful practice under the consumer fraud statute; injunctive relief, civil penalties, and damages
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
Iowa filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Iowa 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iowa Health System d/b/a UnityPoint Health | Business Associate | 1,421,107 | 30 Jul 2018 | |||
| CJ Elmwood Partners, L.P. | Healthcare Provider | 22,416 | 22 Oct 2018 | |||
| Iowa Health System d/b/a UnityPoint Health | Business Associate | 16,429 | 16 Apr 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 4696.
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.