– Most of all, ensure the solution you choose is HIPAA compliant – Adopt latest technologies to mitigate data breach – Choose the right technology solution to protect patient health data – Plan sufficient budget for security purposes to curtail or minimize data breach
Steps to be taken by the healthcare industry to prevent data breach: According to NBC News, complete health records are going for $60 each. By hacking these information cybercriminals make a significant amount of money. This information from the medical records can be used for fraudulent billing, prescriptions, etc.
HIPAA COMPLIANT CLOUD STORAGE FREE FULL
Medical records contain lots of information about the patient like their full name, address, insurance details, social security number, diagnosis details, driver’s license, credit card numbers and a lot more. And this hacking trend is likely to stay or even increase over the coming years. So far in 2017, 79 security breaches, each affecting at least 500 patients, have been reported to the U.S. But the healthcare industry still lags in terms of preparedness when comes to implementing security protocols. Medical identity theft is increasing at an alarming rate. The healthcare industry attracts the security hackers because medical records are lucrative to sell and are easy to hack. and these criminals even sell the patient records for anywhere between 1-5 dollars per record and complete set of medical records for more than $1000 on the darknet. And this stolen data could be used by the cyber attackers for many fraudulent activities such as stealing identities, procuring drugs, for filing fraudulent claims, pursuing treatment using another identity, etc. Recent studies also say that healthcare has been the industry with the highest number of data breaches. Stats reveal that a total of 113.2 million healthcare related records were stolen in 2015. The healthcare industry is one of the primary targets for cybercriminals. It also administrative safeguards such as data backups and security incident procedures. The Security Rule, which addresses electronic PHI, includes physical and technical safeguards such as audit controls and access controls.
The law protects privacy, integrity, and accessibility. When PHI is stored on behalf of the healthcare organization the cloud service becomes a business associate and thus must be HIPAA compliant. Violations can also carry criminal charges that can result in jail time. Based on the level of negligence, the penalty for non-compliance can range from $100 to $50,000 per violation, with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million per year for violations of an identical provision. It includes CPA, Attorney, Laboratories, IT Providers, Billing and Coding Services.įor detailed information, please visit the Health & Human Services (HHS) website.