Breach filing
ArchivedIndependence Blue Cross and AmeriHealth New Jersey: 12,450 individuals, Dec 2014.
Independence Blue Cross and AmeriHealth New Jersey reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 26 December 2014. The filing records the organisation as a health plan in Pennsylvania and lists 12,450 individuals affected, which makes it the 111th largest of the 339 Pennsylvania filings on the register and the 63rd largest of the 314 filings submitted nationally in 2014. Among the 15 Pennsylvania filings made in 2014 it ranks 2nd.
Individuals affected
12,450
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$1.99M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in PA
111th
of 339 Pennsylvania filings
Rank in 2014
63rd
of 314 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
- Health Plan
- Individuals affected
- 12,450
- Breach submission date
- 26 December 2014
- Submission year
- 2014
- Type of breach
- Improper Disposal
- Location of breached information
- Paper/Films
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Pennsylvania (PA)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Pennsylvania by size
- 111th of 339
- Rank in 2014 nationally
- 63rd of 314
- Pennsylvania median filing
- 3,905 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- PA-20141226-independence-blue-cross-and-amerihealth
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Pennsylvania and in 2014
OCR classifies the incident as improper disposal, with the breached information held in paper records or films. Improper Disposal is the type recorded on 3 of the 339 Pennsylvania filings (1%) and on 4% of all filings submitted in 2014. Paper/Films appears on 12% of Pennsylvania filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 34% of Pennsylvania filings do involve one. At 12,450 individuals the breach is 3.2 times the Pennsylvania median filing of 3,905 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.
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 12,450 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 $1.99M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $2.39M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Independence Blue Cross and AmeriHealth New Jersey. 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.
Members of the covered entity's (CE) maintenance team improperly disposed of four boxes of paper records containing the protected health information (PHI) of approximately 12,450 individuals in error during the course of an office move within the building. The trash was collected by the CE's trash removal vendor the next day and transported to a recycling plant. The PHI involved in the breach included names, addresses, identification numbers (including social security numbers), home phone numbers, physician information, health care plans, and group numbers. The CE was not able to determine whether or not someone at the recycling center may have acquired or viewed the PHI. The CE, Independence Blue Cross, provided breach notification to HHS, the media, and affected individuals. The CE offered all members who had their member identification number compromised one year of free credit monitoring. As a result of OCR's investigation, the CE revised its policies and procedures for trash disposal, as well as maintenance and disposal of provider reports. The CE also sent a reminder to all associates regarding its policies and procedures for proper handling of paper documents and proper disposal of trash and documents containing PHI. Furthermore, the CE sanctioned the employees responsible for the incident. The CE initiated plans to provide additional staff training on its HIPAA policies and procedures for trash disposal.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
12,450 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$1.99M
12,450 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$2.39M
12,450 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Independence Blue Cross and AmeriHealth New Jersey 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 2014, topped up from other years where 2014 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coordinated Health | Healthcare Provider | 13,907 | 31 Oct 2014 | |||
| David DiGiallorenzo, D.M.D. | Healthcare Provider | 11,000 | 19 Jun 2014 | |||
| Partners In Nephrology & Endocrinology, P.C. | Healthcare Provider | 5,000 | 14 Mar 2014 |
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 5953.
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.