Form: Cost-of-Breach DisclosureSource: IBM Cost of a Data BreachFiled: 28 Apr 2026
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Filing MT-20250519-community-hospital-of-anacondaHHS OCR Breach Register, Montana

Breach filing

Under investigation

Community Hospital of Anaconda: 21,243 individuals, May 2025.

Community Hospital of Anaconda reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 19 May 2025. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Montana and lists 21,243 individuals affected, which makes it the 9th largest of the 36 Montana filings on the register and the 230th largest of the 798 filings submitted nationally in 2025. Among the 4 Montana filings made in 2025 it ranks 1st.

Individuals affected

21,243

As reported to HHS

Modelled cost (IBM 2025)

$3.40M

Method shown, not disclosed

Rank in MT

9th

of 36 Montana filings

Rank in 2025

230th

of 798 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
21,243
Breach submission date
19 May 2025
Submission year
2025
Type of breach
Hacking/IT Incident
Location of breached information
Network Server
Business associate present
No
Portal status
listed by HHS OCR under Cases Currently Under Investigation
Rank in Montana by size
9th of 36
Rank in 2025 nationally
230th of 798
Montana median filing
6,000 individuals
Register id (derived)
MT-20250519-community-hospital-of-anaconda

Section F.2 / In context

Where this filing sits in Montana and in 2025

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 20 of the 36 Montana filings (56%) and on 81% of all filings submitted in 2025. Network Server appears on 31% of Montana filings.

No business associate is recorded on the filing; 14% of Montana filings do involve one. At 21,243 individuals the breach is 3.5 times the Montana median filing of 6,000 and 5.3 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 by HHS OCR under Cases Currently Under Investigation. OCR has not published a closing summary, so this page is limited to the fields on the filing itself; the archive entry that follows a closed investigation usually adds a short account of what was exposed and what the entity did afterwards.

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 21,243 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 $3.40M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $4.08M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Community Hospital of Anaconda. 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.5 / Modelled cost

21,243 individuals through IBM's per-record figures

Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost

Modelled

IBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record

$3.40M

21,243 x $160

IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record

$4.08M

21,243 x $192

Method: individuals affected, as reported by Community Hospital of Anaconda 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 2025, topped up from other years where 2025 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.

Covered entityTypeIndividualsSubmitted
Ortho Montana, PSCHealthcare Provider37,0008 Feb 2011
New West Health Services d/b/a New West MedicareHealth Plan28,20915 Jan 2016
Western Health ScreeningBusiness Associate15,32614 Apr 2017
Western Montana Clinic PCHealthcare Provider8,2551 Aug 2025
Sapphire Community HealthHealthcare Provider5,61717 Oct 2025

Index / Companion schedules

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-under-investigation__2026-08-28.csv, export row 545.

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.