Dive Brief:
- The 12-hospital Merit Health System based in Jackson, Mississippi is notifying 810 patients of a breach where an employee allegedly swiping patient files for more than a year.
- One of the largest recent cyber attacks at UCLA Health occurred in July where the health information of about 4.5 million people was compromised.
- Additional large data breaches include Akron Children's Hospital (Ohio) where 7,660 patients were affected, McClean Hospital (MA) where backup tapes of 12,600 people went missing, and Healthfirst, a NY payer, where its payer portal was compormised, affected 5,300 members.
Dive Insight:
A recent American Action Forum report estimates that EMR hacks have compromised 94 million health records this year.
In addition, the report estimates the average cost of a data breach is $398 in the healthcare industry versus about $217 in other markets. The report states that "more has been spent on responding to security breaches of healthcare records in the first six months of 2015 than the total amount of federal incentives paid through the HITECH Act to make this transition happen."
There has also been a dramatic increase in the number of records compromised in a single breach. In response to this, Blue Cross Blue Shield recently announced they will be offering customers identity protection starting 2016.