Breach filing
ArchivedRetina Group of Washington, PLLC: 455,935 individuals, Dec 2023.
Retina Group of Washington, PLLC reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 22 December 2023. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Maryland and lists 455,935 individuals affected, which makes it the 12th largest of the 170 Maryland filings on the register and the 66th largest of the 746 filings submitted nationally in 2023. Among the 16 Maryland filings made in 2023 it ranks 2nd.
Individuals affected
455,935
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$72.9M
Upper bound, method shown
Rank in MD
12th
of 170 Maryland filings
Rank in 2023
66th
of 746 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
- 455,935
- Breach submission date
- 22 December 2023
- Submission year
- 2023
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Network Server
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Maryland (MD)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Maryland by size
- 12th of 170
- Rank in 2023 nationally
- 66th of 746
- Maryland median filing
- 4,792 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- MD-20231222-retina-group-of-washington-pllc
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Maryland and in 2023
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 117 of the 170 Maryland filings (69%) and on 82% of all filings submitted in 2023. Network Server appears on 45% of Maryland filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 38% of Maryland filings do involve one. At 455,935 individuals the breach is 95 times the Maryland median filing of 4,792 and 114 times the national median of 4,000 across all 7,884 filings. It is one of 801 filings of 100,000 or more individuals.
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.
Maryland's breach notification statute (Md. Code, Com. Law 14-3504) requires notice to affected residents within 45 days after discovery or notification of the breach. Its attorney general threshold: all breaches (AG notified before individual notices are sent). 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 455,935 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 $72.9M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $87.5M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Retina Group of Washington, PLLC. Because the filing is above the roughly 100,000-record range in which the per-record figure is reliable, the result is an upper bound, not an estimate: fixed costs are spread across far more records at this scale.
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.
Retina Group of Washington, the covered entity (CE), reported that it experienced a ransomware incident that affected the protected health information (PHI) of 455,935 individuals. The PHI involved included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, dates of birth, drivers' license and Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, and treatment and health insurance information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, and the media. In its mitigation efforts, the CE implemented additional administrative, technical, and security safeguards to better protect its sensitive data. OCR provided technical assistance regarding the HIPAA Rules.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
455,935 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
Upper boundIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$72.9M
455,935 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$87.5M
455,935 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Retina Group of Washington, PLLC 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
Maryland statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Maryland: Md. Code, Com. Law 14-3504
- Notice to individuals
- Within 45 days after discovery or notification of the breach
- Attorney general threshold
- All breaches (AG notified before individual notices are sent) (Before individual notifications are sent)
- Private right of action
- No: No PROA under the breach statute; AG enforcement only
- Penalty
- Unfair or deceptive trade practice; up to $10,000 per violation, $25,000 per repeat violation
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
Maryland filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Maryland filings in 2023, topped up from other years where 2023 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services | Health Plan | 2,342,357 | 28 Jul 2023 | |||
| Advanced Medical Management, LLC | Business Associate | 319,485 | 29 Jun 2023 | |||
| Johns Hopkins Medicine | Healthcare Provider | 310,405 | 25 Jul 2023 |
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 1292.
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.