Cyber-attacks are increasing in frequency and severity, putting healthcare organizations at risk. The best way to protect your organization is to implement the proper security measures and create a cybersecurity plan. This blog post provides information on the best practices for protecting your healthcare organization from cyber-attacks.
The insurance industry has always faced uncertainty. It is a world of risk, and the only way to evaluate it is through prediction. For example, when you buy car insurance, you are preparing against theft or damage from an accident before the policy’s term ends. If it is not – congratulations! You just made money by betting against yourself.
In 2015, OCR conducted 115 audits and found that 96% of those audited were not in compliance with at least one major provision of HIPAA. Furthermore, nearly half of the organizations audited had not completed a risk analysis – which is required by HIPAA.
In what may come as a relief for several healthcare providers, there is still uncertainty about when the next round of HIPAA Audits will start. What you have right now is time to look at your medical practice’s state of digital security and compliance status in line with the Omnibus Rule changes if you have not already done it.
When talking HIPAA privacy and security, the numbers do most of the talking. Take 29.3 million, for instance, the number of patient health records compromised in a HIPAA data breach since 2009, or 138 percent, the percent jump in the number of health records breached just from 2012.
Cedars-Sinai said it will mail letters to patients identified as being potentially affected by a data breach. Cedars Sinai is one of the world’s largest academic healthcare organizations. They provide cutting-edge patient care, medical education, and biomedical research. Unfortunately, they recently experienced a data breach that affected more than 500,000 patients.
The federal and state laws governing data privacy exact severe penalties on organizations that do not implement appropriate data security measures. Make sure you know what’s at stake. AvMed recently paid $3.5 million to settle a data breach lawsuit in which class members could not prove actual damage.
Health Care Systems and Medical Devices at Risk for Increased Cyber Intrusions for Financial Gain Cyber actors will likely increase cyber intrusions against health care systems—to include medical devices—due to mandatory transition from paper to electronic health records (EHR), lax cybersecurity standards, and a higher financial payout for medical records in the black market.
Hackers allegedly broke into Anthem, Inc.’s database last week, potentially compromising the personal information of approximately 80 million former and current customers, as well as employees, according to multiple reports. The information potentially compromised includes names, dates of birth, medical IDs or Social Security numbers, street addresses, and email addresses.
