Deer Oaks Behavioral Health settles HIPAA case for $225,000 after ransomware breach
Deer Oaks – The Behavioral Health Solution, a healthcare provider in Texas, has reached a $225,000 HIPAA settlement with HHS OCR. The agency announced the agreement on July 7, 2025, resolving a case covering two separate incidents: an earlier online exposure of patient discharge summaries caused by a coding error (35 individuals), and a later hacking/IT incident affecting 171,871 individuals. The larger breach filing was submitted on July 31, 2024. OCR's risk-analysis-failure finding spanned both incidents. As part of the resolution, the provider agreed to a two-year corrective action plan. Administrators should review their incident response protocols to ensure they meet regulatory expectations for breach notification and remediation.