Form: Cost-of-Breach DisclosureSource: IBM Cost of a Data BreachFiled: 28 Apr 2026
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Filing PA-20230329-uhs-of-delawareHHS OCR Breach Register, Pennsylvania

Breach filing

Archived

UHS of Delaware, Inc.: 40,290 individuals, Mar 2023.

UHS of Delaware, Inc. reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 29 March 2023. The filing records the organisation as a business associate in Pennsylvania and lists 40,290 individuals affected, which makes it the 53rd largest of the 339 Pennsylvania filings on the register and the 217th largest of the 746 filings submitted nationally in 2023. Among the 40 Pennsylvania filings made in 2023 it ranks 11th.

Individuals affected

40,290

As reported to HHS

Modelled cost (IBM 2025)

$6.45M

Method shown, not disclosed

Rank in PA

53rd

of 339 Pennsylvania filings

Rank in 2023

217th

of 746 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
40,290
Breach submission date
29 March 2023
Submission year
2023
Type of breach
Hacking/IT Incident
Location of breached information
Email
Business associate present
Yes
Portal status
listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
Rank in Pennsylvania by size
53rd of 339
Rank in 2023 nationally
217th of 746
Pennsylvania median filing
3,905 individuals
Register id (derived)
PA-20230329-uhs-of-delaware

Section F.2 / In context

Where this filing sits in Pennsylvania and in 2023

OCR classifies the incident as a hacking or IT incident, with the breached information held in email. Hacking/IT Incident is the type recorded on 228 of the 339 Pennsylvania filings (67%) and on 82% of all filings submitted in 2023. Email appears on 24% of Pennsylvania filings.

A business associate is recorded as present on the filing, as it is on 34% of Pennsylvania filings. At 40,290 individuals the breach is 10 times the Pennsylvania median filing of 3,905 and 10 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 40,290 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 $6.45M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $7.74M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by UHS of Delaware, Inc.. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 1.2 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.

UHS of Delaware, the business associate (BA), reported that an employee of its subcontractor was the subject of an email phishing scheme that compromised the protected health information (PHI) for 40,290 individuals. The PHI involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, claims and health insurance information, diagnoses, and other treatment information. The BA notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and posted substitute notice on its website. In its mitigation efforts, the BA implemented additional administrative, technical, and security safeguards to better protect its sensitive data. All staff were retrained on email security precautions.

Section F.5 / Modelled cost

40,290 individuals through IBM's per-record figures

Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost

Modelled

IBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record

$6.45M

40,290 x $160

IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record

$7.74M

40,290 x $192

Method: individuals affected, as reported by UHS of Delaware, Inc. 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 2023, topped up from other years where 2023 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.

Covered entityTypeIndividualsSubmitted
Radius Global SolutionsBusiness Associate135,74219 Oct 2023
Imagine360Business Associate132,80730 Jun 2023
United Steelworkers Local 286Health Plan37,96514 Apr 2023
Highmark IncBusiness Associate36,60010 Feb 2023

Index / Companion schedules

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 1868.

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.