Breach filing
ArchivedUMass Memorial Medical Group, Inc.: 14,100 individuals, Jan 2015.
UMass Memorial Medical Group, Inc. reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 30 January 2015. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Massachusetts and lists 14,100 individuals affected, which makes it the 66th largest of the 241 Massachusetts filings on the register and the 39th largest of the 270 filings submitted nationally in 2015. Among the 7 Massachusetts filings made in 2015 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
14,100
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$2.26M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in MA
66th
of 241 Massachusetts filings
Rank in 2015
39th
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
- 14,100
- Breach submission date
- 30 January 2015
- Submission year
- 2015
- Type of breach
- Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
- Location of breached information
- Paper/Films
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Massachusetts (MA)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Massachusetts by size
- 66th of 241
- Rank in 2015 nationally
- 39th of 270
- Massachusetts median filing
- 3,900 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- MA-20150130-umass-memorial-medical-group
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Massachusetts and in 2015
OCR classifies the incident as unauthorized access or disclosure, with the breached information held in paper records or films. Unauthorized Access/Disclosure is the type recorded on 52 of the 241 Massachusetts filings (22%) and on 38% of all filings submitted in 2015. Paper/Films appears on 10% of Massachusetts filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 37% of Massachusetts filings do involve one. At 14,100 individuals the breach is 3.6 times the Massachusetts median filing of 3,900 and 3.5 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.
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 14,100 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 $2.26M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $2.71M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by UMass Memorial Medical Group, Inc.. 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.
UMass Memorial Medical Group, Inc., the covered entity (CE), reported that an employee impermissibly accessed the protected health information (PHI) of its patients for approximately four months in 2014. The breach report to OCR, the individuals and the media was delayed at the request of law enforcement officials. Once law enforcement officials indicated that notifications would not compromise their investigation, the CE provided the required notifications. The breach affected approximately 14,000 individuals. The employee was sanctioned and then resigned from the CE. OCR's investigation revealed that the employee had permissible access to the PHI to perform her job duties, but that she also used that access for a purpose not permitted by the Rules. As a result of OCR's investigation, the CE implemented new technical safeguards to more closely monitor employee access to PHI and restrict available information in patient records; established new physical safeguards; created a new training program for all staff; engaged a third-party consultant to review its privacy and security programs; and provided free credit monitoring and a call-center for affected individuals. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
14,100 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$2.26M
14,100 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$2.71M
14,100 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by UMass Memorial Medical Group, Inc. 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 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spectrum Health Ssytems, Inc. | Healthcare Provider | 14,750 | 20 Oct 2011 | |||
| Ethos, also known as Southwest Boston Senior Services | Business Associate | 14,503 | 22 Mar 2024 | |||
| Baystate Health, Inc. | Healthcare Provider | 13,112 | 21 Oct 2016 | |||
| The McLean Hospital Corporation | Healthcare Provider | 12,673 | 28 Jul 2015 | |||
| Partners HealthCare System, Inc. | Healthcare Provider | 3,321 | 1 May 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 5933.
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.