Breach filing
ArchivedCoplin Health Systems: 43,000 individuals, Dec 2017.
Coplin Health Systems reported a breach of unsecured protected health information to the HHS Office for Civil Rights on 29 December 2017. The filing records the organisation as a healthcare provider in West Virginia and lists 43,000 individuals affected, which makes it the 8th largest of the 47 West Virginia filings on the register and the 25th largest of the 358 filings submitted nationally in 2017. Among the 4 West Virginia filings made in 2017 it ranks 1st.
Individuals affected
43,000
As reported to HHS
Modelled cost (IBM 2025)
$6.88M
Method shown, not disclosed
Rank in WV
8th
of 47 West Virginia filings
Rank in 2017
25th
of 358 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
- 43,000
- Breach submission date
- 29 December 2017
- Submission year
- 2017
- Type of breach
- Theft
- Location of breached information
- Laptop
- Business associate present
- No
- State
- West Virginia (WV)
- Portal status
- listed in the HHS OCR breach portal archive
- Rank in West Virginia by size
- 8th of 47
- Rank in 2017 nationally
- 25th of 358
- West Virginia median filing
- 2,643 individuals
- Register id (derived)
- WV-20171229-coplin-health-systems
Section F.2 / In context
Where this filing sits in West Virginia and in 2017
OCR classifies the incident as theft, with the breached information held in a laptop. Theft is the type recorded on 4 of the 47 West Virginia filings (9%) and on 15% of all filings submitted in 2017. Laptop appears on 4% of West Virginia filings.
No business associate is recorded on the filing; 36% of West Virginia filings do involve one. At 43,000 individuals the breach is 16 times the West Virginia median filing of 2,643 and 11 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.
West Virginia's breach notification statute (W. Va. Code 46A-2A-101 et seq.) requires notice to affected residents without unreasonable delay. Its attorney general threshold: no AG notification requirement. 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 43,000 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 $6.88M; the 2026 edition's $192 gives $8.26M. Both are modelled estimates with the method shown, not costs disclosed by Coplin Health Systems. For scale, IBM's 2026 average cost of a healthcare breach is $6.64M, so this filing models at 1.2 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 December 29, 2017, the covered entity (CE), Coplin Health System, reported that a password-protect, unencrypted laptop computer issued to a part-time employee was stolen from his automobile. The employee notified law enforcement and the CE immediately notified its information technology (IT) department of the theft. Further inquiry determined that the employee did not store protected health information (PHI) on the laptop, but used it to access and use the CE's online Electronic Health Record (EHR) system and email system. The CE could not eliminate the risk that the laptop could have contained some PHI saved by prior users. At the time of the theft, the CE had an encryption policy in place requiring all laptops issued to employees to be encrypted. The CE immediately cancelled the credentials issued to the employee that enabled him to access its IT systems, including the EHR system. The CE's IT department monitored its' IT systems for any signs of unauthorized access and is expected to do so indefinitely. The CE counseled the employee policies and procedures with regard to security for laptops. Following the breach, the CE ensured that every laptop in its inventory was either encrypted or removed from active service. The CE also began implementing a mobile device management solution that will allow it to remotely wipe any CHS-owned devices that might be lost or stolen in the future. OCR obtained copy of the CE's current risk assessment, its breach notification to affected individuals, and copies of HIPAA policies and procedures. OCR obtained assurances that the CE implemented the corrective actions listed.
Section F.5 / Modelled cost
43,000 individuals through IBM's per-record figures
Modelled cost / method shown, not a disclosed cost
ModelledIBM 2025 customer PII, $160 per record
$6.88M
43,000 x $160
IBM 2026 customer PII, $192 per record
$8.26M
43,000 x $192
Method: individuals affected, as reported by Coplin Health Systems 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
West Virginia statute and the HIPAA rule
State notification statute
West Virginia: W. Va. Code 46A-2A-101 et seq.
- Notice to individuals
- Without unreasonable delay
- Attorney general threshold
- No AG notification requirement
- Private right of action
- No: No PROA; the AG has exclusive enforcement authority
- Penalty
- Unfair or deceptive act; penalties require repeated and willful violations, capped at $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
West Virginia filings closest in size
Neighbours by size rank among West Virginia filings in 2017, topped up from other years where 2017 has too few. Filings of 10,000 or more link to their own page.
| Covered entity | Type | Individuals | Submitted | Breach type | Location | BA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charleston Area Medical Center | Healthcare Provider | 67,413 | 14 Feb 2025 | |||
| Charleston Area Medical Center, Inc. | Healthcare Provider | 54,000 | 28 Mar 2022 | |||
| Weirton Medical Center | Healthcare Provider | 26,793 | 18 Mar 2024 | |||
| Elizabeth L. Brown, MD, PLLC | Healthcare Provider | 8,436 | 12 May 2017 | |||
| West Virginia University Hospitals-East, Inc. DBA University Healthcare | Healthcare Provider | 7,445 | 24 Feb 2017 |
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 4996.
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.