Breach filing
ArchivedLouisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans: 14,500 individuals, Sep 2015.
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 15 September 2015. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Louisiana and lists 14,500 individuals affected, which makes it the 19th largest of the 66 Louisiana filings on the register and the 37th largest of the 270 filings submitted nationally in 2015. Among the 3 Louisiana filings made in 2015 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
14,500
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$2.32M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in LA
19th
of 66 Louisiana filings
Rank in 2015
37th
of 270 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
- 14,500
- Breach submission date
- 15 September 2015
- Submission year
- 2015
- Type of breach
- Theft
- Location of breached information
- Laptop
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Louisiana (LA)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Louisiana by size
- 19th of 66
- Rank in 2015 nationally
- 37th of 270
- Louisiana median filing
- 6,909 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- LA-20150915-louisiana-state-university-health-scienc
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Louisiana and in 2015
OCR classifies the incident as theft, with the breached information held in a laptop. Theft is the type recorded on 11 of the 66 Louisiana filings (17%) and on 30% of all filings submitted in 2015. Laptop appears on 15% of Louisiana filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 32% of Louisiana filings do involve one. At 14,500 individuals the breach is 2.1 times the Louisiana median filing of 6,909 and 3.6 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.
Louisiana's breach notification statute (La. R.S. 51:3071 et seq.) requires notice to affected residents in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, no later than 60 days from discovery. Its attorney general threshold: all breaches affecting Louisiana 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 14,500 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 $2.32M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $2.78M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.4 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.
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center - New Orleans, the covered entity (CE), reported that an unencrypted laptop was stolen from a physician's personal vehicle resulting in the theft of protected health information (PHI) of approximately 14,500 individuals. The types of PHI involved in the breach included clinical and demographic information. Following the breach, the CE notified HHS, affected individuals, and the media. As a result of OCR's investigation, the CE began to identify all unencrypted electronic devices and encrypt them, and implemented a method to address data backup. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
14,500 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$2.32M
14,500 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$2.78M
14,500 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans 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
Louisiana statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Louisiana: La. R.S. 51:3071 et seq.
Database Security Breach Notification Law
- Notice to individuals
- In the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, no later than 60 days from discovery
- Attorney general threshold
- All breaches affecting Louisiana residents (Within 10 days of distributing notices to residents)
- Private right of action
- Limited: Civil action for actual damages from failure to give timely notice, not for the breach itself
- Penalty
- Unfair trade practice; up to $5,000 per violation per day for AG-notification failures
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
Louisiana filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Louisiana filings in 2015, topped up from other years where 2015 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kmart Pharmacy #7623 | Business Associate | 16,988 | 31 Jan 2013 | |||
| University Medical Center of New Orleans | Business Associate | 16,559 | 7 Jan 2021 | |||
| Saurabh N. Patel, M.D - Florida Retina CenterOpen | Healthcare Provider | 13,652 | 11 May 2026 | |||
| Amedisys | Healthcare Provider | 6,909 | 1 Mar 2015 | |||
| St. Martin Parish School Based Health Centers | Healthcare Provider | 3,000 | 15 Jun 2015 |
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 5755.
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.