Breach filing
ArchivedSweetser: 22,000 individuals, Sep 2019.
Sweetser reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 13 September 2019. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Maine and lists 22,000 individuals affected, which makes it the 10th largest of the 37 Maine filings on the register and the 99th largest of the 511 filings submitted nationally in 2019. Among the 2 Maine filings made in 2019 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
22,000
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$3.52M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in ME
10th
of 37 Maine filings
Rank in 2019
99th
of 511 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
- 22,000
- Breach submission date
- 13 September 2019
- Submission year
- 2019
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Maine (ME)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Maine by size
- 10th of 37
- Rank in 2019 nationally
- 99th of 511
- Maine median filing
- 4,229 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- ME-20190913-sweetser
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Maine and in 2019
OCR classifies the incident as a hacking or IT incident, with the breached information held in email. Hacking/IT Incident is the type recorded on 30 of the 37 Maine filings (81%) and on 61% of all filings submitted in 2019. Email appears on 22% of Maine filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 22% of Maine filings do involve one. At 22,000 individuals the breach is 5.2 times the Maine median filing of 4,229 and 5.5 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.
Maine's breach notification statute (10 M.R.S. 1346 et seq.) requires notice to affected residents as expediently as possible and without unreasonable delay, no later than 30 days after discovery. Its attorney general threshold: all breaches (no minimum resident threshold). 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 22,000 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 $3.52M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $4.22M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Sweetser. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.6 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), Sweetser, reported that several employees were the victims of an email phishing attack that affected the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of 22,000 individuals. The ePHI involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, drivers' license numbers, Social Security numbers, claims information, medical conditions, health insurance information, and other treatment information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and provided complimentary identity protection and credit monitoring services. In response to the breach, the CE implemented additional policies and procedures to enhance their IT security infrastructure and provided additional security awareness training to its employees. OCR provided technical assistance to the CE and obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions noted.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
22,000 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$3.52M
22,000 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$4.22M
22,000 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Sweetser 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
Maine statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Maine: 10 M.R.S. 1346 et seq.
Notice of Risk to Personal Data Act
- Notice to individuals
- As expediently as possible and without unreasonable delay, no later than 30 days after discovery
- Attorney general threshold
- All breaches (no minimum resident threshold) (Within the same 30-day window)
- Private right of action
- No: No express PROA; claims may run through the Unfair Trade Practices Act
- Penalty
- Up to $500 per violation, capped at $2,500 per day; equitable relief available
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
Maine filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Maine filings in 2019, topped up from other years where 2019 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penobscot Valley HospitalOpen | Healthcare Provider | 33,107 | 28 Mar 2026 | |||
| InterMed, PA | Healthcare Provider | 33,000 | 8 Jan 2020 | |||
| Mount Desert Island Hospital, Inc. | Healthcare Provider | 29,952 | 30 Jun 2023 | |||
| NAHGA Claim ServicesOpen | Health Plan | 21,834 | 19 Nov 2025 | |||
| Penobscot Community Health Center, Inc. | Healthcare Provider | 13,299 | 12 Jul 2019 |
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 4266.
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.