Healthcare providers are required to follow the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules to offer protection of patient health information; however, in last year alone, millions of patient records have been left vulnerable because of the more than 720 healthcare-related data breaches. Such attacks, like a data breach, have a long-lasting impact, not only on the patients whose sensitive medical information has been compromised, but on many other individuals who no longer are willing trust their own private information in the hands of the organization affected. As our world continues to become more and more interconnected, cyber security has never been more important. Just look at these staggering data breach stats:
Staggering Data Breach Stats
- According to Bitglass’ 2016 Healthcare Breach Report, 1 in 3 Americans were victims of healthcare data breaches, attributed to a series of large-scale attacks that each affected more than 10 million individuals.
- Among the most significant findings of the report was that in 2015, 98 percent of record leaks were due to large-scale breaches.
- This is an 80% increase in data breach hacks making it clear that hackers are targeting the healthcare industry.
- Over 60% worry about the possibility of a data breach when their patient information was being transferred by fax or electronically.
- Because of this worry, 12% withhold important medical information from doctors leading to serious consequences such as a misdiagnosis of medical conditions, unnecessary tests and prescribed medications.
According to the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, “If your patients lack trust in Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), feeling that the confidentiality and accuracy of their electronic health information is at risk, they may not want to disclose health information to you. Withholding their health information could have life-threatening consequences.”
Protected Health Information is the Target for Data Breach
Protected health information (PHI) — which includes sensitive information such as Social Security numbers, medical record data, genders, marital status, addresses, phone numbers, insurance information and dates of birth —all has big value on the black market. The Ponemon Institute recently reported on the cost of breaches and found the average cost per stolen record to average $154. For healthcare organizations, however, that number skyrockets to a lofty $363 on average.
HIPAA has the legislation (passed in 1996) designed to protect patients against loss, theft or disclosure of their sensitive medical information, but despite these painful lessons, the fines and penalties don’t appear to be having a discernible effect on either patient privacy or data security. When it comes to the safety of your organization (and patient information) it’s best to be proactive with strong cyber security protection.
Protection from a Data Breach with KMB Cyber Security
Keeping data secure is an important step to maintaining patient trust. Our priority is protecting your organization from a data breach. KMB has the experience and knowledge to protect your network from becoming compromised. From IT gap analysis, IT, strategic and technical consulting, we are able to determine the best methods of protecting your company site from hackers. Contact us today to get started!