Breach filing
ArchivedSEIM JOHNSON, LLP: 30,972 individuals, Feb 2016.
SEIM JOHNSON, LLP reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 8 February 2016. The filing records the organisation as a business associate in Nebraska and lists 30,972 individuals affected, which makes it the 13th largest of the 60 Nebraska filings on the register and the 33rd largest of the 328 filings submitted nationally in 2016. Among the 3 Nebraska filings made in 2016 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
30,972
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$4.96M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in NE
13th
of 60 Nebraska filings
Rank in 2016
33rd
of 328 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
- Business Associate
- Individuals affected
- 30,972
- Breach submission date
- 8 February 2016
- Submission year
- 2016
- Type of breach
- Theft
- Location of breached information
- Laptop
- Business associate present
- Yes
- State
- Nebraska (NE)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Nebraska by size
- 13th of 60
- Rank in 2016 nationally
- 33rd of 328
- Nebraska median filing
- 3,000 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- NE-20160208-seim-johnson
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Nebraska and in 2016
OCR classifies the incident as theft, with the breached information held in a laptop. Theft is the type recorded on 7 of the 60 Nebraska filings (12%) and on 19% of all filings submitted in 2016. Laptop appears on 7% of Nebraska filings.
A business associate is recorded as present on the filing, as it is on 23% of Nebraska filings. At 30,972 individuals the breach is 10 times the Nebraska median filing of 3,000 and 7.7 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.
Nebraska's breach notification statute (Neb. Rev. Stat. 87-801 et seq.) requires notice to affected residents as soon as possible and without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: all breaches affecting Nebraska 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 30,972 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 $4.96M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $5.95M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by SEIM JOHNSON, LLP. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.9 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 business associate (BA), Seim Johnson, LLP, reported on behalf of 10 health care provider clients that its health care auditor took his firm-issued laptop computer on a non-business weekend trip. When the employee arrived home from this trip, he discovered the backpack containing the laptop was missing. The laptop contained the protected health information (PHI) of 30,972 individuals and included demographic, clinical, and financial information. The BA provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media. After investigating this incident, the BA determined that the laptop may not have been effectively encrypted. Following the breach, the BA sanctioned the involved employee and its security officer, retrained employees on security risks involving portable devices, and implemented new policies and procedures. OCR obtained assurances that the BA implemented the corrective actions listed above.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
30,972 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$4.96M
30,972 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$5.95M
30,972 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by SEIM JOHNSON, LLP 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
Nebraska statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Nebraska: Neb. Rev. Stat. 87-801 et seq.
Financial Data Protection and Consumer Notification of Data Security Breach Act
- Notice to individuals
- As soon as possible and without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- All breaches affecting Nebraska residents (At the same time as affected individuals)
- Private right of action
- No: Only the Nebraska Attorney General may enforce
- Penalty
- Up to $25,000 per violation under the Consumer Protection Act
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
Nebraska filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Nebraska filings in 2016, topped up from other years where 2016 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nebraska Methodist Health System | Healthcare Provider | 39,912 | 14 Dec 2020 | |||
| Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. | Health Plan | 39,675 | 8 Jul 2019 | |||
| University of Nebraska Medical CenterOpen | Healthcare Provider | 26,937 | 17 Apr 2026 | |||
| Complete Family Foot Care | Healthcare Provider | 5,883 | 7 Mar 2016 | |||
| Four Star Drug of Bethany, Inc. | Healthcare Provider | 647 | 18 Oct 2016 |
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 5664.
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.