Breach filing
ArchivedCity of Philadelphia Fire Department Emergency Medical Services Unit: 81,463 individuals, Apr 2015.
City of Philadelphia Fire Department Emergency Medical Services Unit reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 2 April 2015. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Pennsylvania and lists 81,463 individuals affected, which makes it the 43rd largest of the 339 Pennsylvania filings on the register and the 15th largest of the 270 filings submitted nationally in 2015. Among the 6 Pennsylvania filings made in 2015 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
81,463
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$13.0M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in PA
43rd
of 339 Pennsylvania filings
Rank in 2015
15th
of 270 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
- 81,463
- Breach submission date
- 2 April 2015
- Submission year
- 2015
- Type of breach
- Unauthorized Access/Disclosure
- Location of breached information
- Desktop Computer, Paper/Films
- Business associate present
- Yes
- State
- Pennsylvania (PA)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Pennsylvania by size
- 43rd of 339
- Rank in 2015 nationally
- 15th of 270
- Pennsylvania median filing
- 3,905 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- PA-20150402-city-of-philadelphia-fire-department-eme
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Pennsylvania and in 2015
OCR classifies the incident as unauthorized access or disclosure, with the breached information held in a desktop computer and paper records or films. Unauthorized Access/Disclosure is the type recorded on 56 of the 339 Pennsylvania filings (17%) and on 38% of all filings submitted in 2015. Desktop Computer appears on 3% of Pennsylvania filings.
A business associate is recorded as present on the filing, as it is on 34% of Pennsylvania filings. At 81,463 individuals the breach is 21 times the Pennsylvania median filing of 3,905 and 20 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.
Pennsylvania's breach notification statute (73 Pa. Stat. 2301 et seq.) requires notice to affected residents without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: more than 500 Pennsylvania 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 81,463 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 $13.0M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $15.6M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by City of Philadelphia Fire Department Emergency Medical Services Unit. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 2.4 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.
In 2012 a rogue employee of the covered entity's (CE) business associate (BA), Intermedix (dba Advanced Data Processing, Inc.), improperly accessed and disclosed the account information of individuals served by 27 ambulance agencies in 17 states. The CE was initially notified that none of its data was involved; however, on February 3, 2015, the CE was notified by law enforcement in Opa-Locka, Florida that a sheet of paper containing account information regarding the CE's services was found on a person arrested on that date. Following the 2015 notification, the BA's investigation confirmed 34 known disclosures, 746 likely disclosures and 80,684 individuals' protected health information (PHI) that was at risk of disclosure. The types of PHI involved in the breach included demographic information, social security numbers, and health insurance information. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, affected individuals, and the media, and posted substitute notice on its website. The BA offered 36 months of free credit monitoring and fraud resolution services. Following the breach, the BA created an information security team within its Compliance Department, integrated new security measures into its billing system, and developed a new user interface placing further restrictions on employees based on specific job roles. The CE revised the BA agreement. OCR also obtained assurances that the BA implemented the corrective measured listed above.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
81,463 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$13.0M
81,463 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$15.6M
81,463 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by City of Philadelphia Fire Department Emergency Medical Services Unit 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
Pennsylvania statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Pennsylvania: 73 Pa. Stat. 2301 et seq.
Breach of Personal Information Notification Act (amended by Act 33 of 2024)
- Notice to individuals
- Without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- More than 500 Pennsylvania residents (Without unreasonable delay (online portal))
- Private right of action
- Yes: Treated as an unfair or deceptive practice; consumers may pursue civil suits
- Penalty
- AG enforcement via civil actions, injunctive relief, civil penalties, and 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
Pennsylvania filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Pennsylvania filings in 2015, topped up from other years where 2015 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Family Practice Center PC | Healthcare Provider | 83,969 | 11 Jul 2022 | |||
| Lehigh Valley Health Network | Healthcare Provider | 81,487 | 14 Sep 2020 | |||
| Medical Associates of the Lehigh Valley | Healthcare Provider | 75,628 | 9 Sep 2022 | |||
| Robert D. Chatlos DMD & Assoc | Business Associate | 2,900 | 18 Oct 2015 | |||
| Rite Aid Corporation | Healthcare Provider | 2,345 | 3 Jun 2015 |
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 5879.
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.