According to the latest Digital Health report by Accenture, healthcare providers are at risk of losing $305 billion in collective lifetime patient revenue over the next five years.
As the healthcare industry becomes increasingly digitalized with the evolution of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs), consumers’ full names, social security numbers, addresses, insurance credentials and medical records subsequently become increasingly targeted amongst cyber criminals.
According to the US. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights, in 2014 alone, approximately 1.6 million Americans had their medical information compromised from their health provider. Accenture's’ analysis predicts that between 2015 and 2019, this number will rise to 25 million people, nearly one in 13 patients.
Now what many healthcare providers don’t seem to comprehend is that consumers losing their medical information can cause their customers a great deal of financial suffering. In fact, 65 percent of medical identity theft victims have paid an average of $13,500 in medical costs.
What this means for health providers is that consumers have the ability to choose a provider who makes cyber security and protecting their medical information a priority. Health providers who did not make protecting these credentials a priority in 2014 alone suffered losses of $113 million of lifetime patient revenue for every breach they suffered, amounting t0 $305 million in the next 5 years if not taken seriously.
As Accenture predicts that between 2015 and 2019, more than 6 million people will become victims of identity theft, it’s vitally important that health providers understand the seriousness of this cyber activity and do their best to protect the information of its consumers for not only the company’s benefit but most importantly for the consumer.
It’s now time for health providers to step up to the plate and implement first in class breach prevention & detection solutions to ward off cybercriminals and protect the medical and financial credentials of its consumers. Health providers need a completely infallible way of detecting the presence of malware & to ensure hardening measures and user access controls are being enforced. Any configuration drift or breach activity needs to be alerted in real time to ward off threats & potential damage. With solutions like Breach Detection & File Integrity Monitoring, your organization will be allowed to monitor any activity within sensitive files and alert you if and when a breach occurs.
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Read the full Report from Accenture
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