If your practice is like most, the answer is no. The healthcare industry as a whole has not been able to keep up with the rapid increase of breaches, security incidents and criminal attacks.
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While you should complete a thorough risk assessment and put measures in place to prevent a breach, it is important to remember that no practice or healthcare organization is immune to a data breach.
The statistics are overwhelming. In the past two years:
- 91% of healthcare organizations have had a data breach;
- 39% of healthcare organizations have had two to five breaches; and
- 40% of healthcare organizations have had more than five breaches.
Malicious attacks, such as cyber attacks and insider snooping, are up a whopping 125% since 2010. Cases of medical identity theft have nearly doubled in the past five years to over 2.3 million victims in 2014.
These breaches are costing the healthcare industry $6 Billion per year.
It is important to include thorough breach readiness guidelines in your HIPAA Risk Assessment.
We help our clients put measures in place to prevent breaches, but we also warn that breaches can happen to any practice. We put thorough measures in place for our clients to deal with the aftermath of a breach.
Breaches can lead to not only a loss of data, but also a loss of patients along with hefty fines and sanctions. It is important to train your staff on dealing with a breach and putting extensive guidelines in place.
Following the right steps in the aftermath of a breach can potentially save your practice.
In our next blog post, we will keep you informed of related issues. To get this important information delivered directly to your mail box, Click here to Subscribe
Do you need help with preparing for a breach and complying with government regulations? We can help. To contact us about your practice’s breach readiness plan, your practice’s HIPAA Risk Assessment or your other legal needs: CLICK HERE.
P.S. If you or your patients are interested in consumer healthcare issues, check out myhealthspin.com.
