Breach filing
ArchivedBoston Medical Center: 15,265 individuals, Apr 2014.
Boston Medical Center reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 29 April 2014. The filing records the organisation as a HIPAA-regulated entity in Massachusetts and lists 15,265 individuals affected, which makes it the 63rd largest of the 241 Massachusetts filings on the register and the 54th largest of the 314 filings submitted nationally in 2014. Among the 6 Massachusetts filings made in 2014 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
15,265
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$2.44M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in MA
63rd
of 241 Massachusetts filings
Rank in 2014
54th
of 314 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
- not given
- Individuals affected
- 15,265
- Breach submission date
- 29 April 2014
- Submission year
- 2014
- Type of breach
- Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
- Location of breached information
- Network Server
- Business associate present
- Yes
- State
- Massachusetts (MA)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Massachusetts by size
- 63rd of 241
- Rank in 2014 nationally
- 54th of 314
- Massachusetts median filing
- 3,900 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- MA-20140429-boston-medical-center
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Massachusetts and in 2014
OCR classifies the incident as unauthorized access or disclosure, with the breached information held in a network server. Unauthorized Access/Disclosure is the type recorded on 52 of the 241 Massachusetts filings (22%) and on 34% of all filings submitted in 2014. Network Server is the most common location in the state, appearing on 51% of Massachusetts filings.
A business associate is recorded as present on the filing, as it is on 37% of Massachusetts filings. At 15,265 individuals the breach is 3.9 times the Massachusetts median filing of 3,900 and 3.8 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.
Massachusetts's breach notification statute (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93H) requires notice to affected residents as soon as practicable and without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: all breaches (AG and Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation). 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 15,265 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 $2.44M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $2.93M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Boston Medical Center. 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.
Boston Medical Center, the covered entity (CE), engaged MDF Transcription, a business associate (BA), to provide transcription services for certain physicians. The BA subcontracted with Wave Technologies (Wave) to provide a website where transcribed notes could be reviewed by physicians of the CE. Wave contracted with Pair Networks (Pair) to provide a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site to host the notes. On March 4, 2014, the CE discovered that the protected health information (PHI) of about 15,265 individuals was not password protected and could potentially be subject to unauthorized access. The PHI involved in the breach included names, addresses, dates of birth, and clinical information. The CE provided timely breach notification to affected individuals, the media, and HHS. As a result of OCR's investigation, the CE contacted the BA and had the settings on the FTP site changed so that only individuals with usernames and passwords would be able to access the CE's data. After the BA provided confirmation to the CE that the site had been reconfigured by Pair, the CE terminated its relationship with the BA. In addition, the CE created and implemented additional policies and procedures requiring the CE to enter into a BA agreement before permitting any BA to create, receive, maintain, or transmit electronic PHI (ePHI) on its behalf and requiring BAs to follow all of the CE's applicable Privacy and Security policies. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions above.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
15,265 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$2.44M
15,265 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$2.93M
15,265 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Boston Medical Center 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
Massachusetts statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Massachusetts: Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93H
paired with 201 CMR 17.00 data-security regulations
- Notice to individuals
- As soon as practicable and without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- All breaches (AG and Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation) (As soon as practicable and without unreasonable delay)
- Private right of action
- Yes: Chapter 93A claims, subject to a 30-day pre-suit demand letter requirement
- Penalty
- Up to $5,000 per violation; treble damages for willful violations, plus attorney fees
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
Massachusetts filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Massachusetts filings in 2014, topped up from other years where 2014 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sensata Technologies, Inc. Health and Welfare Benefit Plan | Health Plan | 15,630 | 5 Jun 2025 | |||
| 2020 On-Site Optometry | Business Associate | 15,400 | 13 Feb 2017 | |||
| Spectrum Health Ssytems, Inc. | Healthcare Provider | 14,750 | 20 Oct 2011 | |||
| Iron Mountain Incorporated | Business Associate | 10,000 | 15 Aug 2014 | |||
| Tufts Associated Health Maintenance Organization, Inc. and Tufts Insurance Company | Health Plan | 8,830 | 24 Apr 2014 |
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 6135.
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.