Breach filing
ArchivedOrtho Montana, PSC: 37,000 individuals, Feb 2011.
Ortho Montana, PSC reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 8 February 2011. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Montana and lists 37,000 individuals affected, which makes it the 7th largest of the 36 Montana filings on the register and the 16th largest of the 200 filings submitted nationally in 2011. It was the only Montana filing in 2011.
Individuals affected
37,000
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$5.92M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in MT
7th
of 36 Montana filings
Rank in 2011
16th
of 200 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
- 37,000
- Breach submission date
- 8 February 2011
- Submission year
- 2011
- Type of breach
- Theft
- Location of breached information
- Laptop
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Montana (MT)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Montana by size
- 7th of 36
- Rank in 2011 nationally
- 16th of 200
- Montana median filing
- 6,000 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- MT-20110208-ortho-montana-psc
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Montana and in 2011
OCR classifies the incident as theft, with the breached information held in a laptop. Theft is the type recorded on 7 of the 36 Montana filings (19%) and on 62% of all filings submitted in 2011. Laptop appears on 11% of Montana filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 14% of Montana filings do involve one. At 37,000 individuals the breach is 6.2 times the Montana median filing of 6,000 and 9.3 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 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 37,000 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 $5.92M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $7.10M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Ortho Montana, PSC. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 1.1 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.
A laptop containing the electronic protected health information (ePHI) of approximately 37,000 patients was lost or stolen when the laptop was taken to an event by a workforce member. Following the breach, the covered entity (CE) sanctioned the workforce member who responsible for handling the laptop. As a result of OCR's investigation, the CE conducted a risk analysis and developed a risk management plan. The CE also removed ePHI from laptops and encrypted laptops, tablets, and cellular smart phones. Additionally, the CE developed new procedures and revised existing procedures in order to safeguard ePHI .
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
37,000 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$5.92M
37,000 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$7.10M
37,000 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Ortho Montana, PSC 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 2011, topped up from other years where 2011 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Western Montana Mental Health Center | Healthcare Provider | 86,758 | 14 Nov 2024 | |||
| Benefis Hospitals Inc | Healthcare Provider | 81,043 | 27 Jul 2021 | |||
| Planned Parenthood of Montana | Healthcare Provider | 56,917 | 5 Nov 2024 | |||
| New West Health Services d/b/a New West Medicare | Health Plan | 28,209 | 15 Jan 2016 | |||
| Community Hospital of AnacondaOpen | Healthcare Provider | 21,243 | 19 May 2025 |
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 6943.
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.