Healthcare breaches were a problem in 2019. December 2019 saw the highest amount of increases. Hence, it rose 8.57% from November 2019, according to HIPAA Journal. However, December saw a decrease in exposed healthcare records by about 35%.
2019 in particular saw a huge increase in reported breaches and hacking incidents. Over 41 million records were either exposed or stolen. Furthermore, 2019 had the most incidents than the last three years put together. The number of data breaches was also a problem. It increased by 36.12% since 2018.
HIPAA has attributed some of these incidents to employee errors. For example, and someone stole an employee’s laptop. The employee’s laptop was in the car. Encryption was not on the laptop. As a result, 114,466 records were leaked.
Hacking also played a major role in the increase. HIPAA said that 80% of the incidents were linked to hacking-related incidents. There was also 11 cases of unauthorized access. Two of the incidents were theft. For now, HIPAA has a few recommendations. They recommend implementing a more secure email services. HIPAA said the majority of incidents were related to phishing.
Finally, HIPAA hit noncompliant entities hard with fines. HIPAA charged 10 entities with healthcare breach incidents. If you and your organization would like to learn more about how to remain compliant with HIPAA, American Medical Compliance has all the needed resources.
We offer courses about HIPAA compliance that could save your organization thousands of dollars. Visit our website to learn more about what we offer.
To learn more about the healthcare breaches, click here:
https://www.hipaajournal.com/december-2019-healthcare-data-breach-report/
