Breach filing
ArchivedKnoxville Heart Group, Inc.: 15,995 individuals, Apr 2018.
Knoxville Heart Group, Inc. reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 27 April 2018. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Tennessee and lists 15,995 individuals affected, which makes it the 62nd largest of the 196 Tennessee filings on the register and the 81st largest of the 369 filings submitted nationally in 2018. Among the 7 Tennessee filings made in 2018 it ranks 3rd.
Individuals affected
15,995
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$2.56M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in TN
62nd
of 196 Tennessee filings
Rank in 2018
81st
of 369 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
- 15,995
- Breach submission date
- 27 April 2018
- Submission year
- 2018
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Tennessee (TN)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Tennessee by size
- 62nd of 196
- Rank in 2018 nationally
- 81st of 369
- Tennessee median filing
- 3,371 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- TN-20180427-knoxville-heart-group
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Tennessee and in 2018
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 121 of the 196 Tennessee filings (62%) and on 45% of all filings submitted in 2018. Email appears on 24% of Tennessee filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 36% of Tennessee filings do involve one. At 15,995 individuals the breach is 4.7 times the Tennessee median filing of 3,371 and 4.0 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.
Tennessee's breach notification statute (Tenn. Code Ann. 47-18-2107) requires notice to affected residents immediately, but no later than 45 days from discovery or notification. Its attorney general threshold: no mandatory AG notification for private-sector breaches. 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 15,995 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 $2.56M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $3.07M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Knoxville Heart Group, Inc.. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.5 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.
On February 26, 2018, the covered entity ("CE"), Knoxville Heart Group, Inc., discovered that an unauthorized third party gained access to its email system through a phishing email. The email system contained the protected health information (PHI) of 15,008 individuals, primarily on "rounding lists," which contained demographic, clinical and healthcare claims information, as well as the Social Security numbers, driver's licenses, and financial account numbers for 130 individuals. Prior to OCR's investigation, the CE immediately terminated the unauthorized access, reset the email account password, blocked all internal emails coming from the compromised email account, retrained all of its employees, provided free credit monitoring services and identity theft insurance to individuals whose financial information was compromised and created a secure email messaging platform for its practitioners to use on mobile devices. After the commencement of OCR's investigation, the CE conducted a risk analysis and revised its Security Rule policies and procedures to prevent reoccurrence. OCR provided the CE with technical assistance of risk analysis and management plans as well as phishing prevention. The CE provided breach notification to HHS, the media, affected individuals, and on its website. OCR obtained assurances that the CE met its notification requirements and implemented the corrective actions listed above.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
15,995 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$2.56M
15,995 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$3.07M
15,995 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Knoxville Heart Group, 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
Tennessee statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Tennessee: Tenn. Code Ann. 47-18-2107
- Notice to individuals
- Immediately, but no later than 45 days from discovery or notification
- Attorney general threshold
- No mandatory AG notification for private-sector breaches
- Private right of action
- Yes: Affected customers may sue to recover damages and obtain injunctive relief
- Penalty
- AG may pursue civil penalties, injunctive relief, and restitution; class actions restricted
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
Tennessee filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Tennessee filings in 2018, topped up from other years where 2018 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSK Group | Healthcare Provider | 566,236 | 22 May 2018 | |||
| Decatur County General Hospital | Healthcare Provider | 24,000 | 26 Jan 2018 | |||
| Alive Hospice | Healthcare Provider | 1,868 | 13 Jul 2018 | |||
| Robert Smith DMD, PC | Healthcare Provider | 1,500 | 22 Jan 2018 |
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 4879.
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.