Breach filing
ArchivedAir Methods, LLC: 34,063 individuals, Jan 2024.
Air Methods, LLC reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 12 January 2024. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Nevada and lists 34,063 individuals affected, which makes it the 9th largest of the 55 Nevada filings on the register and the 221st largest of the 741 filings submitted nationally in 2024. Among the 6 Nevada filings made in 2024 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
34,063
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$5.45M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in NV
9th
of 55 Nevada filings
Rank in 2024
221st
of 741 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
- 34,063
- Breach submission date
- 12 January 2024
- Submission year
- 2024
- Type of breach
- Theft
- Location of breached information
- Laptop
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Nevada (NV)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Nevada by size
- 9th of 55
- Rank in 2024 nationally
- 221st of 741
- Nevada median filing
- 3,898 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- NV-20240112-air-methods
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Nevada and in 2024
OCR classifies the incident as theft, with the breached information held in a laptop. Theft is the type recorded on 9 of the 55 Nevada filings (16%) and on 2% of all filings submitted in 2024. Laptop appears on 7% of Nevada filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 25% of Nevada filings do involve one. At 34,063 individuals the breach is 8.7 times the Nevada median filing of 3,898 and 8.5 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.
Nevada's breach notification statute (Nev. Rev. Stat. 603A.010 et seq.) requires notice to affected residents in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: no AG notification requirement. 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 34,063 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 $5.45M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $6.54M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Air Methods, LLC. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 1.0 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), Air Methods, reported that a laptop computer containing the protected health information (PHI) of 34,063 individuals was stolen from during a burglary. The PHI involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, diagnoses, medications, and claims and treatment information, The CE notified HHS, the affected individuals, the media, and provided substitute notice. In response to the breach, the CE provided complimentary credit monitoring services and implemented additional administrative, technical, and security safeguards to better protect PHI.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
34,063 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$5.45M
34,063 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$6.54M
34,063 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Air Methods, LLC 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
Nevada statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Nevada: Nev. Rev. Stat. 603A.010 et seq.
- Notice to individuals
- In the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- No AG notification requirement
- Private right of action
- No: No PROA for notification failures; NRS 603A.900 allows damages for reasonable-security failures
- Penalty
- Enforced through the Deceptive Trade Practices Act; injunctive relief, civil penalties, 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
Nevada filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Nevada filings in 2024, topped up from other years where 2024 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nevada Orthopedic & Spine Center | Healthcare Provider | 50,000 | 1 Feb 2021 | |||
| Prominence Health Plan | Health Plan | 45,380 | 18 Jun 2021 | |||
| M2ComSys Inc. | Business Associate | 32,151 | 8 Aug 2013 | |||
| Somerset Dental | Healthcare Provider | 11,321 | 16 Apr 2024 | |||
| Effortless Office Enterprises, LLCOpen | Business Associate | 3,112 | 20 Dec 2024 |
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 1250.
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.