Breach filing
ArchivedSan Juan County New Mexico: 12,500 individuals, May 2016.
San Juan County New Mexico reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 17 May 2016. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in New Mexico and lists 12,500 individuals affected, which makes it the 16th largest of the 57 New Mexico filings on the register and the 74th largest of the 328 filings submitted nationally in 2016. Among the 5 New Mexico filings made in 2016 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
12,500
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$2.00M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in NM
16th
of 57 New Mexico filings
Rank in 2016
74th
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
- Healthcare Provider
- Individuals affected
- 12,500
- Breach submission date
- 17 May 2016
- Submission year
- 2016
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Desktop Computer
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- New Mexico (NM)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in New Mexico by size
- 16th of 57
- Rank in 2016 nationally
- 74th of 328
- New Mexico median filing
- 3,557 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- NM-20160517-san-juan-county-new-mexico
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in New Mexico and in 2016
OCR classifies the incident as a hacking or IT incident, with the breached information held in a desktop computer. Hacking/IT Incident is the type recorded on 28 of the 57 New Mexico filings (49%) and on 35% of all filings submitted in 2016. Desktop Computer appears on 12% of New Mexico filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 16% of New Mexico filings do involve one. At 12,500 individuals the breach is 3.5 times the New Mexico median filing of 3,557 and 3.1 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.
New Mexico's breach notification statute (N.M. Stat. Ann. 57-12C-1 et seq.) requires notice to affected residents within 45 calendar days following discovery of the breach. Its attorney general threshold: any breach affecting New Mexico 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 12,500 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 $2.00M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $2.40M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by San Juan County New Mexico. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.4 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.
An unauthorized user obtained remote access to a workstation located at the covered entity (CE), San Juan County New Mexico. The protected health information (PHI) potentially affected included the names, addresses, health assessments, and clinical information of approximately 12,500 individuals. As a result of the breach, the CE improved safeguards, updated policies and procedures, and provided affected individuals with free credit monitoring. Further, the CE provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
12,500 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$2.00M
12,500 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$2.40M
12,500 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by San Juan County New Mexico 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
New Mexico statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
New Mexico: N.M. Stat. Ann. 57-12C-1 et seq.
Data Breach Notification Act
- Notice to individuals
- Within 45 calendar days following discovery of the breach
- Attorney general threshold
- Any breach affecting New Mexico residents
- Private right of action
- No: Only the Attorney General may bring enforcement actions
- Penalty
- Unfair practice under the Unfair 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
New Mexico filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among New Mexico 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest C.A.R.E. CenterOpen | Healthcare Provider | 21,866 | 3 Oct 2025 | |||
| Artesia General Hospital | Healthcare Provider | 13,905 | 27 Aug 2019 | |||
| New Mexico Oncology Hematology Consultants, LTD | Healthcare Provider | 12,354 | 31 Dec 2013 | |||
| Indian Health Service Northern Navajo Medical Center | Health Plan | 7,421 | 7 Apr 2016 | |||
| New Mexico Heart Institute | Healthcare Provider | 4,185 | 23 Nov 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 5569.
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.