A recent breach has led to unauthorized parties attempting to collect healthcare bills being sent to patients of Hospital Sisters Health Systems (HSHS).
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Patients of HSHS with outstanding bills may be receiving calls demanding payment. However, the calls are not coming from HFHS, but rather in the wake of a cybersecurity incident.
The attempts to collect the bills are fraudulent.
It is essential that patients know that the calls are not coming from the health system.
A similar incident at your healthcare entity could easily lead to patient confusion and loss, billing issues, auditing, and government penalties.
How can you protect your healthcare practice from a similar problem?
This issue started with a cyber incident that allowed nefarious actors access to the billing records.
To protect your practice or healthcare entity, make sure that your security and privacy systems are up to date and operating efficiently.
Perform internal audits of your security systems and billing practices.
Make sure that your security systems are up to date, your encryption is sufficient, your inventories are updated regularly, and your firewalls are secure.
It is also important that your privacy policies are up to date and regularly audited. Do employees leave passwords out in the open? If so, make sure your routine addresses this and any other issues.
Staff should be trained regularly.
There should also be clear breach response policies in place, so that if an incident like the one at HSHS were to occur, your office would be able to quickly notify all patients.
If your healthcare entity needs help protecting itself, contact Rickard & Associates today.
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