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How Expensive are Healthcare Data Breaches?

11 Responses

1. Richard, on August 13, 2010 at 2:40 PM said:

   eMR Costs

   I agree with your sentiments above. It is a widely accepted assumption in the healthcare and information technology industries that electronic medical records in hospitals help reduce costs and enhance the quality of patient care.

   http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Issues/Health-Care/2010/08/12/Electronic-Medical-Records-Higher-Costs-Cited-by-Study.aspx

   But, this new research on the subject contradicts that conventional IT wisdom. And, that has surprised and disappointed many in the healthcare and IT fields, including the researchers themselves.

   Richard

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2. D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on August 13, 2010 at 5:42 PM said:

   Thanks, Richard.

   Like the W. P. Carey School of Business authors of the Fiscal Times article you linked, I also believe eventually eMRs will save money and lives in hospital-based healthcare – even though it will take years longer and will be much more expensive than healthcare stakeholders led us to believe long ago. As Allscripts CEO Glen Tullman assures us, making physicians (read “patients and taxpayers”) invest in his eMR products will help Wall Street as well as Allscripts (MDRX).

   Digital systems don’t scale down well, so adoption will take even longer in physicians’ offices than in hospitals, and will cost much more money than estimated in the infamous HIT industry-friendly Rand study that was cited for bias by the article’s authors. Yet eMRs will forever be a bigger danger for doctors and patients than paper records.

   As for dentists and their patients, electronic dental records are just as dangerous as eMRs and will never show a return for the dentists’ investment. This means dental patients will pay for eDRs through higher fees, and the non-productive expense of dangerous systems will block access to affordable dental care for many.

   To me, that means eDRs are counter to the Hippocratic Oath.

   Saving money with information technology in dentistry is impossible for reasons that cannot be denied: The business of dentistry is just too darn simple.

   Now if I could only get the American Dental Association to admit they are wrong.

   D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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3. Darrell, on September 7, 2011 at 10:27 PM said:

   Record health record breaches

   These times must be awkward for leaders who confidently promoted EHRs in dentistry while discounting dental patients’ privacy interests.

   “More than 30,000 health-records breaches since 2009: HHS” by Joseph Conn.

   http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20110907/NEWS/110909970/

   Darrell

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4. Nancy, on December 8, 2011 at 11:38 AM said:

   How a health ‘data spill’ could be more damaging than what BP did to the Gulf

   The healthcare industry lags when it comes to protecting sensitive personal information, even as medical records are worth orders of magnitude more than other types data.

   http://www.govhealthit.com/news/qa-how-health-data-spill-could-be-worse-what-bp-did-gulf?topic=,18,26

   A wake-up call could be in the offing.

   Nancy

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5. D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on March 21, 2012 at 2:07 PM said:

   Financial impact of breaches
   Free Webinar Invitation

   Today, patient privacy attorney Jim Pyles sent a note encouraging me to share with you the link to tomorrow’s “Free Webinar to Highlight Findings from The Financial Impact of Breached Protected Health Information.” (March 21, 1:00 p.m. Texas Time)

   http://www.ansi.org/news_publications/news_story.aspx?menuid=7&articleid=3185

   Mr. Pyles is one of four participants in the discussion hosted by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), The Santa Fe Group/Shared Assessments Program Healthcare Working Group, and the Internet Security Alliance (ISA). The purpose of the Webinar is “to help health care organizations assess security risks and help them build a business case to better secure PHI.”

   ————————————-

   Darrell,

   Those who think that electronic health records have not had a major adverse impact on health information privacy, public trust and health care costs, should listen to the free webinar tomorrow and download the free study by ANSI and others on the impact of electronic health information systems on health privacy. You should distribute this report to your colleagues in the world of dentistry. I think they might then understand your views a bit better.

   All the best.

   Jim

   James C. Pyles, Principal

   POWERS PYLES SUTTER & VERVILLE PC

   1501 M Street NW, Seventh Floor | Washington, DC 20005-1700

   —————————————

   Done. At this point, I’d do just about anything to be better understood by my dental colleagues.

   D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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6. Darrell Pruitt DDS, on February 18, 2014 at 9:47 PM said:

   “2013 at a Glance,” from “Data Breach QuickView – An Executive’s Guide to 2013 Data Breach Trends”

   [Sponsored by: Risk Based Security and Open Security Foundation, February 2014]

   Click to access 2013-DataBreachQuickView.pdf

   – There were 2,164 incidents reported through December 31, 2013 exposing 822 million records.

   – A single hacking incident involving Adobe Systems exposed 152 million names, customer IDs, encrypted passwords, debit or credit card numbers and other information relating to customer orders.

   – The Business sector accounted for 53.4% of reported incidents, followed by Government (19.3%), Medical (11.5%), Education (8.2%), and Unknown (7.6%).

   – The Business sector accounted for 73.9% of the number of records exposed, followed by Unknown at 24.5%.

   – 59.8% of reported incidents were the result of Hacking which accounted for 72.0% of exposed records.

   – 4.8% of the reported incidents were the result of Web related attacks which accounted 16.9% of exposed records.

   – Breaches involving U.S. entities accounted for 48.7% of the incidents and 66.5% of the exposed records.

   – 51.1% of the incidents exposed between one and 1000 records.

   – Twenty-seven incidents have exposed more than one million records.

   – Four 2013 incidents have secured a place on the Top 10 All Time Breach List.

   – The number of reported exposed records tops 2.5 billion and the number of reported incidents tracked by Risk Based Security exceeded 11,200.

   Darrell Pruitt DDS

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7. Hope R. Hetico RN MHA, on August 19, 2014 at 7:27 PM said:

   Department of Health and Human Services outlines leading data breaches

   According to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services:

   • Breaches due to providers (63% – 68%)
   • Breaches due to health information theft (50%)
   • Breaches due to business associates (25% – 27%)
   • Breaches due to hacking incidents (8% – 27%)
   • Breaches due to unauthorized access (18 – 19%)
   • Breaches due to loss of health information (12% – 17%)
   • Breaches due to health plans (7% – 10%)

   Note: Data from 2011-2012.

   Source: United States Department of Health and Human Services

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8. D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on October 13, 2014 at 6:43 PM said:

   Breaches and class action lawsuits

   “CHS Faces More Legal Challenges Following Huge Breach – At least two class action lawsuits have now been filed against hospital chain Community Health Systems following hacking attacks that compromised HIPAA-protected information for 4.5 million patients.”

   Joseph Goedert
   [HealthDataManagement]
   October 13th 2014

   http://www.healthdatamanagement.com/news/CHS-faces-more-legal-challenges-following-huge-breach-48985-1.html

   If a thousand or so dental patients discover that their identities have been hacked, what is to keep them from filing a class action suit against the dentist(s)? Something to consider before going paperless, Doc.

   D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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9. D. Kellus Pruitt DDS, on November 13, 2014 at 11:38 PM said:

   HIPAA and Data Breaches

   “Cost to a HIPAA breach victim is $19,000 – We talk about the cost of HIPAA related breaches for organizations but have you ever wondered how much it costs a victim of a HIPAA related breach? According to Becker’s Hospital Review, the average cost of a HIPAA related breach to an individual is about $19,000.”

   HIPAA Secure Now!
   Art Gross
   November 12, 2014

   http://www.hipaasecurenow.com/index.php/cost-hipaa-breach-victim-19000/

   “Various Health Entities Report Data Breaches Affecting Thousands” – iHealthBeat, November 13, 2014.

   http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2014/11/13/various-us-health-entities-report-data-breaches-affecting-thousands

   The breaches keep coming, yet unresponsive American Dental Association officials continue to assure members that “EHRs provide long-term savings, convenience.”

   http://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2013-archive/december/ehrs-provide-long-term-savings-convenience

   Shamefully lousy ethics, ADA.

   D. Kellus Pruitt DDS

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10. Ulrich, on November 22, 2014 at 3:19 AM said:

    HIPAA breach?
    [Armed robbery of physician’s encrypted devices]

    Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston is working through that question after a doctor was accosted at knifepoint and forced to hand over passcodes to a laptop and phone containing patient data.

    http://www.medicalpracticeinsider.com/best-practices/how-does-hipaa-handle-armed-robbery-physicians-encrypted-devices?email=%%EmailAddress%%&GroupID=116654&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRokuqjLZKXonjHpfsX56O0kXK6zlMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DScZkI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFQ7LHMbpszbgPUhM%3D

    This takes security to another level.

    Ulrich

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11. Darrell Pruitt DDS, on February 17, 2015 at 4:42 PM said:

    Anthem breach could cost more than $100M

    Report: Cost of Anthem breach could cross $100M

    The hits just keep on coming for Anthem, with a new report speculating that the company’s $100-million insurance policy against cyber attacks may not be enough to pay for efforts to mitigate the damage.” By Anne Zieger for Healthcare Dive, February 17, 2015. (more).

    http://www.healthcaredive.com/news/report-cost-of-anthem-breach-could-cross-100m/364814/

    Darrell Pruitt DDS

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