Major data breach shakes up healthcare industry

Healthcare data breaches increasingly are taking on international proportions.

This was amplified in this week’s biggest news: a breach caused by Chinese hackers compromised the personal information of more than 4.5 million patients of Community Health Systems (CHS). It’s the second largest HIPAA breach ever reported, according to data from the Office for Civil Rights.

CHS, a Franklin, Tenn.-based hospital company with 206 hospitals in 26 states, filed a statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, reporting that a hacker in China bypassed the company’s security measures, most likely in April and June.

According to The Tennesseean, CHS worked with cybersecurity company Mandiant to help address the threat. Data affected in the breach are non-medical but do include patient names, addresses, birthdates, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers.

It seems like every week a healthcare data breach is reported, which is disconcerting for the many who feel that greater data exchange is the next step to better care coordination and lower costs.

It remains a balancing act managing the tension between more fluid healthcare data exchange among providers and the ever-present risk of breaches. As the latest breach shows, securing data remains one of the greatest challenges our industry faces, especially as threats emerge from outside our borders.

What privacy and security strategies are you employing to keep your patients' data safe? Please share your thoughts.

Laura Pedulli

Clinical Innovation + Technology