Breach filing
ArchivedInova Health System: 12,331 individuals, Nov 2018.
Inova Health System reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 2 November 2018. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Virginia and lists 12,331 individuals affected, which makes it the 47th largest of the 157 Virginia filings on the register and the 91st largest of the 369 filings submitted nationally in 2018. Among the 8 Virginia filings made in 2018 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
12,331
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$1.97M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in VA
47th
of 157 Virginia filings
Rank in 2018
91st
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
- 12,331
- Breach submission date
- 2 November 2018
- Submission year
- 2018
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Electronic Medical Record, Paper/Films
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Virginia (VA)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Virginia by size
- 47th of 157
- Rank in 2018 nationally
- 91st of 369
- Virginia median filing
- 4,441 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- VA-20181102-inova-health-system
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Virginia and in 2018
OCR classifies the incident as a hacking or IT incident, with the breached information held in an electronic medical record system and paper records or films. Hacking/IT Incident is the type recorded on 99 of the 157 Virginia filings (63%) and on 45% of all filings submitted in 2018. Electronic Medical Record appears on 12% of Virginia filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 39% of Virginia filings do involve one. At 12,331 individuals the breach is 2.8 times the Virginia median filing of 4,441 and 3.1 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.
Virginia's breach notification statute (Va. Code 18.2-186.6) requires notice to affected residents without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: all breaches (concurrent with individual notice). 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 12,331 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 $1.97M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $2.37M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Inova Health System. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 0.4 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.
The covered entity (CE), Valley Health System, reported that its business associate (BA), Inova Health System, experienced a cyber-attack that affected the protected health information (PHI) of approximately 13,596 individuals. The PHI involved included names, addresses, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, medical record numbers, and patient identification numbers. The BA notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and posted substitute notice on its website. The CE also notified HHS. In its mitigation efforts, the BA implemented additional administrative, technical, and security safeguards to better protect PHI, and retrained its staff.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
12,331 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$1.97M
12,331 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$2.37M
12,331 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Inova Health System 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
Virginia statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Virginia: Va. Code 18.2-186.6
- Notice to individuals
- Without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- All breaches (concurrent with individual notice) (Concurrent with individual notification)
- Private right of action
- Limited: Individuals may recover direct economic damages (no non-economic damages)
- Penalty
- AG may impose civil penalties up to $150,000 per breach
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
Virginia filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Virginia 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional Dermatology Care, P.C. | Healthcare Provider | 13,237 | 9 Aug 2016 | |||
| Pediatric Associates, P.C. | Healthcare Provider | 13,000 | 8 Apr 2022 | |||
| Apple Blossom Family Practice | Healthcare Provider | 12,053 | 16 Dec 2021 | |||
| VCU Health System | Healthcare Provider | 4,686 | 6 Jul 2018 | |||
| MAXIMUS, Inc. / Business Ink, Co. | Business Associate | 3,029 | 17 Apr 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 4687.
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.