The HIPAA Journal noted that in 2023, there were a reported 742 healthcare data breaches, with each affecting more than 500 patients. And any breach affecting over 500 patients carries heavy fines and penalties, depending on the severity. But still, these data breaches continue to occur.
Most healthcare providers use an in-house Electronic Medical Record (EMR) or Electronic Health Record to store patient data.
However, this ease of access also makes the systems susceptible to data security breach or possible cyberattack. This makes it unsafe to house such sensitive patient information.
This healthcare data is useful to health providers but at the same time it poses numerous security risk as well. The root-cause of these challenges stems from cyber threats, human errors and regulatory compliance. Any data breach can put healthcare organizations at risks for loss of money, damage to reputation and low confidence in patients.
So, how can you protect sensitive patient data as a healthcare provider? This article explains the significance of data protection in healthcare and what strategies you can implement to protect data and stay HIPAA compliant. Stay tuned.
How is Healthcare Data Handled
Health records of patients contain details like age and contact information, medical history records, diagnostic test results, and even billing and payment details. Anyone can then easily use this information to identify the individuals, violating several regulations.
Doctors can now instantly access patient data on one centralized interface using EHR or a Medical billing system e.g cardiology medical billing system. This ease of access comes with its own unique challenges like cyberattacks.
Systems must be designed to provide these features in a way that is easy for staff to use them and so they assist the delivery of efficient patient care.
The Critical Importance of Data Protection in Healthcare
Safeguarding Confidential Information
As a healthcare provider you are legally and ethically obliged to protect confidential patient information. Patient data protection builds trust and improves the patient experience. These types of data breaches can erode this trust between patients and providers.
Once patient privacy is compromised, it can also have a lasting effect on the practice as well because news travels fast. This can, in turn, hurt your future financial prospects.
Avoid Financial Losses and Reputational Damage
Data breaches can present an expensive problem for healthcare organizations. To start, you’ll have to pay the direct costs – fines, legal fees and remediation costs. The overall cost may be even higher when you include the indirect costs of missed patients, damaged reputation and a loss in stock price. For example, if a radiology billing system is breached, means the hacker would have access to all the reports and diagnostic information of thousand if not millions of patients.
Some of the largest breaches in healthcare over the years have resulted in crippling financial penalties and lasting PR hits.
Legal and Regulatory Compliance
HIPAA binds doctors to comply with necessary regulations surrounding patients’ data. All healthcare providers and organizations must adhere to the applicable set of laws. And failure to comply can lead to large fines as well as other penalties.
This is why healthcare organizations need to stay up to date with changing regulations to ensure maximum safety of patients’ data.
Key Threats to Healthcare Data
Cybersecurity
For example, healthcare facilities are a common target for cyber-ransom attacks where they ask for ransom in exchange for data. Employee-targeted phishing and social engineering scams trick people into disclosing sensitive information disclosure or giving unauthorized access.
Insider Threats and Human Errors
Human errors are a major risk because they can lead to data leakage by the employees accidentally. Without the appropriate training and awareness programs, staff can inadvertently make mistakes leading to a data breach.
Physical Data Storage
And lastly, physical security should also not be taken lightly, even when data isn’t stored anywhere physically. For physically stored data, floods, leakages, or fires can destroy data centers. Unauthorized physical access to healthcare facilities because of stolen keycards etc. also remains a potential threat.
Regulatory Framework and Compliance
Since the healthcare data protection is based on some serious rules and regulations like HIPAA in the US and GDPR in Europe. These regulations establish the rules to safeguard patient data and assure its secrecy, while being accurate.
There are industry specific best practices and compliance guidelines that healthcare providers must adhere to, many of which may require them undertake routine auditing.
Failure to comply can lead to severe repercussions such as heavy fines and huge penalties. Compliance with these regulations is compulsory to not only continuing the trust patients have in you as their healthcare provider, but also for protecting your practice from fines or worse.
For healthcare organizations to truly protect patient data, it is important they keep up with changing legislations and have strong security measures in place.
Overcoming the Challenges in Data Protection
Blocking Apps on Devices
To prevent unauthorized access to personal and work information, medical software vendors deploy Mobile Device management (MDM) solutions.
These tools are designed to help you control what applications can access patient data so that only authorized personnel have access to it. Balancing security with usability is crucial, allowing healthcare professionals to perform their duties efficiently without compromising data protection.
Integrated Practice Management and EHR Systems
Using one system is great for privacy and data protection. This allows a streamlined flow of information while following security standards. Such integrated health IT solutions nowadays have robust features such as encryption, access controls and audit trails.
But there are a few limitations to these solutions. Not only are they costly and require additional training for users to properly harness their functionality. It may not seem like it but the increased security should help pay for itself many times over along with several man-hours saved by making the process more efficient.
Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
MFA is an important component in the healthcare environment to prevent unauthorized access. Different MFA features including biometrics, tokens and smart cards that introduce extra layers of security.
