Breach filing
ArchivedWilliam F Rinehart DMD PA: 25,000 individuals, Mar 2025.
William F Rinehart DMD PA reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 24 March 2025. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in South Carolina and lists 25,000 individuals affected, which makes it the 24th largest of the 86 South Carolina filings on the register and the 209th largest of the 798 filings submitted nationally in 2025. Among the 9 South Carolina filings made in 2025 it ranks 4th.
Individuals affected
25,000
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$4.00M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in SC
24th
of 86 South Carolina filings
Rank in 2025
209th
of 798 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
- 25,000
- Breach submission date
- 24 March 2025
- Submission year
- 2025
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Network Server
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- South Carolina (SC)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in South Carolina by size
- 24th of 86
- Rank in 2025 nationally
- 209th of 798
- South Carolina median filing
- 4,125 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- SC-20250324-william-f-rinehart-dmd-pa
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in South Carolina and in 2025
OCR classifies the incident as a hacking or IT incident, with the breached information held in a network server. Hacking/IT Incident is the type recorded on 54 of the 86 South Carolina filings (63%) and on 81% of all filings submitted in 2025. Network Server appears on 48% of South Carolina filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 34% of South Carolina filings do involve one. At 25,000 individuals the breach is 6.1 times the South Carolina median filing of 4,125 and 6.3 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 25,000 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 $4.00M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $4.80M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by William F Rinehart DMD PA. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.7 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.
William F Rinehart DMD, the covered entity (CE), reported that it experienced a ransomware attack that compromised the protected health information (PHI) of 25,000 individuals. The type of PHI affected included names, addresses, birthdates, driver's license and Social Security numbers, medications, and other treatment information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, and the media. In response to the breach the CE implemented additional administrative and technical safeguards.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
25,000 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$4.00M
25,000 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$4.80M
25,000 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by William F Rinehart DMD PA 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 2025, topped up from other years where 2025 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rural Health ServicesOpen | Healthcare Provider | 36,542 | 12 Jun 2025 | |||
| Self Regional Healthcare | Healthcare Provider | 26,696 | 17 Jul 2025 | |||
| HopeHealth, Inc. | Healthcare Provider | 5,823 | 15 May 2025 | |||
| Broad River Physicians Group, LLC | Healthcare Provider | 3,295 | 16 Sep 2025 |
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 463.
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.