Form: Cost-of-Breach DisclosureSource: IBM Cost of a Data BreachFiled: 28 Apr 2026
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Filing KY-20260323-pennyroyal-healthcare-servicesHHS OCR Breach Register, Kentucky

Breach filing

Under investigation

Pennyroyal Healthcare Services: 24,122 individuals, Mar 2026.

Pennyroyal Healthcare Services reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 23 March 2026. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Kentucky and lists 24,122 individuals affected, which makes it the 21st largest of the 124 Kentucky filings on the register and the 91st largest of the 441 filings submitted nationally in 2026. Among the 9 Kentucky filings made in 2026 it ranks 2nd.

Individuals affected

24,122

As reported to HHS

Modelled cost (IBM 2025)

$3.86M

Method shown, not disclosed

Rank in KY

21st

of 124 Kentucky filings

Rank in 2026

91st

of 441 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
24,122
Breach submission date
23 March 2026
Submission year
2026
Type of breach
Hacking/IT Incident
Location of breached information
Network Server
Business associate present
No
Portal status
listed by HHS OCR under Cases Currently Under Investigation
Rank in Kentucky by size
21st of 124
Rank in 2026 nationally
91st of 441
Kentucky median filing
3,663 individuals
Register id (derived)
KY-20260323-pennyroyal-healthcare-services

Section F.2 / In context

Where this filing sits in Kentucky and in 2026

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 58 of the 124 Kentucky filings (47%) and on 86% of all filings submitted in 2026. Network Server appears on 38% of Kentucky filings.

No business associate is recorded on the filing; 28% of Kentucky filings do involve one. At 24,122 individuals the breach is 6.6 times the Kentucky median filing of 3,663 and 6.0 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 by HHS OCR under Cases Currently Under Investigation. OCR has not published a closing summary, so this page is limited to the fields on the filing itself; the archive entry that follows a closed investigation usually adds a short account of what was exposed and what the entity did afterwards.

Kentucky's breach notification statute (KRS 365.732) requires notice to affected residents without unreasonable delay, consistent with determining the scope of the breach. Its attorney general threshold: no general AG requirement (reporting agencies at more than 1,000 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 24,122 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 $3.86M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $4.63M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Pennyroyal Healthcare Services. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.7 times the sector average.

Section F.5 / Modelled cost

24,122 individuals through IBM's per-record figures

Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost

Modelled

IBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record

$3.86M

24,122 x $160

IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record

$4.63M

24,122 x $192

Method: individuals affected, as reported by Pennyroyal Healthcare Services 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

Kentucky statute and the HIPAA rule

State notification statute

Kentucky: KRS 365.732

Notice to individuals
Without unreasonable delay, consistent with determining the scope of the breach
Attorney general threshold
No general AG requirement (reporting agencies at more than 1,000 residents)
Private right of action
No: No express PROA; KRS 446.070 may allow recovery for statutory violations
Penalty
Limited private-sector enforcement; AG action under consumer protection statutes

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

Kentucky filings closest in size

Neighbours by size rank among Kentucky filings in 2026, topped up from other years where 2026 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.

Covered entityTypeIndividualsSubmitted
Kentucky Mountain Health AllianceOpenHealthcare Provider30,83019 Jun 2026
Orthopaedic Institute of Western KentuckyHealthcare Provider11,47427 Feb 2026
HealthPoint Family CareHealthcare Provider7,9905 Jan 2026

Index / Companion schedules

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-under-investigation__2026-08-28.csv, export row 201.

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.