Breach filing
ArchivedLancaster County EMS: 50,000 individuals, Jun 2015.
Lancaster County EMS reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 4 June 2015. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in South Carolina and lists 50,000 individuals affected, which makes it the 15th largest of the 86 South Carolina filings on the register and the 21st largest of the 270 filings submitted nationally in 2015. Among the 4 South Carolina filings made in 2015 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
50,000
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$8.00M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in SC
15th
of 86 South Carolina filings
Rank in 2015
21st
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
- 50,000
- Breach submission date
- 4 June 2015
- Submission year
- 2015
- Type of breach
- Improper Disposal
- Location of breached information
- Other Portable Electronic Device
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- South Carolina (SC)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in South Carolina by size
- 15th of 86
- Rank in 2015 nationally
- 21st of 270
- South Carolina median filing
- 4,125 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- SC-20150604-lancaster-county-ems
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in South Carolina and in 2015
OCR classifies the incident as improper disposal, with the breached information held in another portable electronic device. Improper Disposal is the type recorded on 5 of the 86 South Carolina filings (6%) and on 2% of all filings submitted in 2015. Other Portable Electronic Device appears on 6% of South Carolina filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 34% of South Carolina filings do involve one. At 50,000 individuals the breach is 12 times the South Carolina median filing of 4,125 and 13 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.
South Carolina's breach notification statute (S.C. Code 39-1-90) requires notice to affected residents in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: no direct AG requirement (Dept. of Consumer Affairs at 1,000+ 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 50,000 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 $8.00M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $9.60M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Lancaster County EMS. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 1.4 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.
A safe containing two unencrypted computer flash drives and two unencrypted hard drives went missing from the administration building of covered entity (CE), Lancaster County EMS. The protected health information (PHI) stored on the missing hard drives and flash drives included patients' names, addresses, dates of birth, social security numbers, medications, medical histories, medical treatment, and healthcare insurance information for 55,000 individuals. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, the 55,000 affected individuals, and the media. In response to the breach, the CE implemented universal controls to ensure that only the CE's devices can connect to its network.. The CE also implemented security controls and physical safeguards to further restrict access to its server room. In addition, the CE implemented video security system monitoring of its server room. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed above.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
50,000 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$8.00M
50,000 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$9.60M
50,000 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Lancaster County EMS 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
South Carolina statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
South Carolina: S.C. Code 39-1-90
- Notice to individuals
- In the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- No direct AG requirement (Dept. of Consumer Affairs at 1,000+ residents)
- Private right of action
- Yes: Residents may sue; actual damages for negligent violations, broader recovery for knowing and willful
- Penalty
- Administrative fines of $1,000 per affected resident for knowing and willful violations
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
South Carolina filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among South Carolina 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Medical University of South Carolina | Healthcare Provider | 54,869 | 11 Sep 2020 | |||
| Self Regional Healthcare | Healthcare Provider | 52,327 | 21 Oct 2019 | |||
| Sandhills Medical Foundation, Inc. | Healthcare Provider | 39,602 | 12 Mar 2021 | |||
| Midlands Orthopaedics, P.A. | Healthcare Provider | 3,902 | 13 Nov 2015 | |||
| Bon Secours Saint Francis | Healthcare Provider | 1,997 | 26 Oct 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 5827.
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.