Breach filing
ArchivedBenefis Hospitals Inc: 81,043 individuals, Jul 2021.
Benefis Hospitals Inc reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 27 July 2021. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Montana and lists 81,043 individuals affected, which makes it the 5th largest of the 36 Montana filings on the register and the 93rd largest of the 715 filings submitted nationally in 2021. Among the 4 Montana filings made in 2021 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
81,043
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$13.0M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in MT
5th
of 36 Montana filings
Rank in 2021
93rd
of 715 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
- 81,043
- Breach submission date
- 27 July 2021
- Submission year
- 2021
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Montana (MT)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Montana by size
- 5th of 36
- Rank in 2021 nationally
- 93rd of 715
- Montana median filing
- 6,000 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- MT-20210727-benefis-hospitals
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Montana and in 2021
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 20 of the 36 Montana filings (56%) and on 76% of all filings submitted in 2021. Email appears on 36% of Montana filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 14% of Montana filings do involve one. At 81,043 individuals the breach is 14 times the Montana median filing of 6,000 and 20 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.
Montana's breach notification statute (Mont. Code Ann. 30-14-1704 et seq.) requires notice to affected residents without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: all breaches affecting Montana 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 81,043 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 $13.0M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $15.6M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Benefis Hospitals Inc. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 2.3 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), Benefis Hospitals, reported that multiple employees were victims of an email phishing attack that compromised the protected health information (PHI) of 81,043 individuals. The PHI involved included names, dates of birth, addresses, diagnoses, passport numbers, health insurance information, drivers' license numbers, Social Security numbers, and clinical information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and provided substitute notice. In response to the breach, the CE retrained employees on the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules and implemented additional technical safeguards. OCR provided technical assistance to the CE regarding the HIPAA Rules.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
81,043 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$13.0M
81,043 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$15.6M
81,043 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Benefis Hospitals 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
Montana statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Montana: Mont. Code Ann. 30-14-1704 et seq.
- Notice to individuals
- Without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- All breaches affecting Montana residents (When notice is provided to affected individuals)
- Private right of action
- No: Only the Montana Attorney General may bring enforcement actions
- Penalty
- Unfair or deceptive trade practice; up to $10,000 per violation, plus restitution
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
Montana filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Montana filings in 2021, topped up from other years where 2021 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kalispell Regional Healthcare | Healthcare Provider | 149,661 | 22 Oct 2019 | |||
| Western Montana Mental Health Center | Healthcare Provider | 86,758 | 14 Nov 2024 | |||
| Planned Parenthood of Montana | Healthcare Provider | 56,917 | 5 Nov 2024 | |||
| Sapphire Community Health | Healthcare Provider | 3,751 | 21 Apr 2021 | |||
| Glacier Medical Associates | Healthcare Provider | 3,007 | 7 Jun 2021 |
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 3024.
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.