HHS OCR breach portal (HIPAA breaches affecting 500 or more individuals) Primary notice
Posted on the HHS OCR breach portal (HIPAA breaches affecting 500 or more individuals) with a submission date of Sept. 29, 2011.
- Organization as reported
- MAPFRE Life, PR
- Entity type as reported
- Health Plan
- Category as reported
Theft
- Location of information as reported
- Desktop Computer, Other
- Submission date
- Sept. 29, 2011
- Observed by BreachRecords
- 2026-10-18 16:15 UTC (revision 15769, row:6908)
- Archived copy
- Held in the private archive (provenance)
HIPAA settlement demonstrates importance of implementing safeguards for ePHI The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights (OCR), has announced a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) settlement based on the impermissible disclosure of unsecured electronic protected health information (ePHI). MAPFRE Life Insurance Company of Puerto Rico (MAPFRE) has agreed to settle potential noncompliance with the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules by paying $2.2 million and implementing a corrective action plan. With this resolution amount, OCR balanced potential violations of the HIPAA Rules with evidence provided by MAPFRE with regard to its present financial standing. MAPFRE is a subsidiary company of MAPFRE S.A., a global multinational insurance company headquartered in Spain. MAPFRE underwrites and administers a variety of insurance products and services in Puerto Rico, including personal and group health insurance plans. On September 29, 2011, MAPFRE filed a breach report with OCR indicating that a USB data storage device (described as a “pen drive”) containing ePHI was stolen from its IT department, where the device was left without safeguards overnight. According to the report, the USB data storage device included complete names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers. The report noted that the breach affected 2,209 individuals. MAPFRE informed OCR that it was able to identify the breached ePHI by reconstituting the data on the computer on which the USB data storage device was attached. OCR’s investigation revealed MAPFRE’s noncompliance with the HIPAA Rules, specifically a failure to conduct its risk analysis and implement risk management plans, contrary to its prior representations, and a failure to deploy encryption or an equivalent alternative measure on its laptops and removable storage media until September 1, 2014. MAPFRE also failed to implement or delayed implementing other corrective measures it…