Breach filing
ArchivedColumbia River Mental Health Services: 17,842 individuals, Aug 2022.
Columbia River Mental Health Services reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 8 August 2022. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in Washington and lists 17,842 individuals affected, which makes it the 55th largest of the 185 Washington filings on the register and the 258th largest of the 718 filings submitted nationally in 2022. Among the 24 Washington filings made in 2022 it ranks 9th.
Individuals affected
17,842
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$2.85M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in WA
55th
of 185 Washington filings
Rank in 2022
258th
of 718 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
- 17,842
- Breach submission date
- 8 August 2022
- Submission year
- 2022
- Type of breach
- Hacking/IT Incident
- Location of breached information
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- Washington (WA)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in Washington by size
- 55th of 185
- Rank in 2022 nationally
- 258th of 718
- Washington median filing
- 3,950 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- WA-20220808-columbia-river-mental-health-services
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in Washington and in 2022
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 117 of the 185 Washington filings (63%) and on 79% of all filings submitted in 2022. Email appears on 22% of Washington filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 21% of Washington filings do involve one. At 17,842 individuals the breach is 4.5 times the Washington median filing of 3,950 and 4.5 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.
Washington's breach notification statute (RCW 19.255.010) requires notice to affected residents no later than 30 days after discovery. Its attorney general threshold: more than 500 Washington 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 17,842 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 $2.85M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $3.43M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Columbia River Mental Health Services. 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.
The covered entity (CE), Columbia River Mental Health Services, reported that multiple employees were the victims of an email phishing attack affecting the protected health information (PHI) of 17,842 individuals. The PHI involved included names, Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth, claims information, diagnoses, medications, and other treatment information. The CE notified HHS, affected individuals, the media, and provided substitute notice on its website. In response to the breach, the CE provided complimentary credit monitoring and identity theft protection services and implemented additional administrative, technical, and security safeguards to better protect its sensitive data.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
17,842 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$2.85M
17,842 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$3.43M
17,842 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Columbia River Mental Health Services 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
Washington statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
Washington: RCW 19.255.010
- Notice to individuals
- No later than 30 days after discovery
- Attorney general threshold
- More than 500 Washington residents (Within the same 30-day window)
- Private right of action
- Yes: Civil lawsuits under the Consumer Protection Act; actual damages plus up to $1,000 punitive for willful violations
- Penalty
- Consumers may recover damages, costs, and attorney fees; AG may seek penalties and injunctive relief
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
Washington filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among Washington filings in 2022, topped up from other years where 2022 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country Doctor Community Health Clinic | Healthcare Provider | 22,120 | 16 Sep 2022 | |||
| King County Public Hospital District No. 2 d/b/a EvergreenHealth | Healthcare Provider | 20,533 | 22 Apr 2022 | |||
| Smile Solutions | Healthcare Provider | 8,000 | 1 Jun 2022 | |||
| Delta Dental of Washington | Health Plan | 6,361 | 30 Sep 2022 |
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 2304.
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.