Form: Cost-of-Breach DisclosureSource: IBM Cost of a Data BreachFiled: 28 Apr 2026
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Filing TN-20260222-qualderm-partnersHHS OCR Breach Register, Tennessee

Breach filing

Under investigation

QualDerm Partners, LLC: 3,117,874 individuals, Feb 2026.

QualDerm Partners, LLC reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 22 February 2026. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Tennessee and lists 3,117,874 individuals affected, which makes it the 4th largest of the 196 Tennessee filings on the register and the 6th largest of the 441 filings submitted nationally in 2026. Among the 14 Tennessee filings made in 2026 it ranks 1st.

Individuals affected

3,117,874

As reported to HHS

Modelled cost (IBM 2025)

$499M

Upper bound, method shown

Rank in TN

4th

of 196 Tennessee filings

Rank in 2026

6th

of 441 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
3,117,874
Breach submission date
22 February 2026
Submission year
2026
Type of breach
Hacking/IT Incident
Location of breached information
Network Server
Business associate present
No
Portal status
listed by HHS OCR under Cases Currently Under Investigation
Rank in Tennessee by size
4th of 196
Rank in 2026 nationally
6th of 441
Tennessee median filing
3,371 individuals
Register id (derived)
TN-20260222-qualderm-partners

Section F.2 / In context

Where this filing sits in Tennessee and in 2026

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 121 of the 196 Tennessee filings (62%) and on 86% of all filings submitted in 2026. Network Server appears on 43% of Tennessee filings.

No business associate is recorded on the filing; 36% of Tennessee filings do involve one. At 3,117,874 individuals the breach is 925 times the Tennessee median filing of 3,371 and 779 times the national median of 4,000 across all 7,884 filings. It is one of 149 filings on the register of one million or more individuals.

As of 28 August 2026 the case is listed by HHS OCR under Cases Currently Under Investigation. OCR has not published a closing summary, so this page is limited to the fields on the filing itself; the archive entry that follows a closed investigation usually adds a short account of what was exposed and what the entity did afterwards.

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 3,117,874 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 $499M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $599M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by QualDerm Partners, LLC. Because the filing is above the roughly 100,000-record range in which the per-record figure is reliable, the result is an upper bound, not an estimate: fixed costs are spread across far more records at this scale.

Section F.5 / Modelled cost

3,117,874 individuals through IBM's per-record figures

Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost

Upper bound

IBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record

$499M

3,117,874 x $160

IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record

$599M

3,117,874 x $192

Method: individuals affected, as reported by QualDerm Partners, LLC 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 2026, topped up from other years where 2026 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.

Covered entityTypeIndividualsSubmitted
Community Health Systems Professional Services CorporationsHealthcare Provider6,121,15821 Aug 2014
Community Health Systems Professional Services CorporationBusiness Associate4,500,00020 Aug 2014
Xsolis, Inc.OpenBusiness Associate1,396,5195 Jun 2026
Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporations (CHSPSC), LLCBusiness Associate1,173,55516 Mar 2023
Anatomic and Clinical Laboratory Associates, P.C.OpenHealthcare Provider169,62623 Jun 2026

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-under-investigation__2026-08-28.csv, export row 238.

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.