Another data breach–this time impacting 4 million Sutter patients. My daughter is among the patients in this breach (most likely), But even if this data isn’t immediately wiped by the thief, I’m struggling to see what’s worse about this than a standard credit card theft–which happens everyday. To me the worse impact from “data” being known about anyone is the completely OPEN data that is forcibly shared about people in the individual market (you are forced to share it to apply for coverage). And the only slightly less forced sharing of health information to get a job with a self-insured employer (yes they know who you are and they can tell what you’re likely to cost before hiring you). And do we hear shit about that? No, but that has real not imagined consequences. I sincerely hope that by the time my daughter gets to school in 3 years, there is no legal discrimination on health data whether that data is forcibly extracted or stolen. Oh and BTW premiums for California small group are going up 20% again this year … and that may be Sutter’s fault.
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Healthcare data breaches are rapidly increasing day by day. Healthcare records are a indubitable jackpot for hackers, providing them access to credit card data, Social Security numbers, employment information and medical history records. So healthcare industry need to take precaution against cyberattacks.One of the best practice for preventing healthcare data breach is educate employees.Cybersecurity related online communities become a good reference for employees to get more information. I would like to suggest Opsfolio.com, an online community for those involved with healthcare cyber security, which is a right guide for me to get healthcare cybersecurity informations.
Great post! Been reading a lot about different situations of data breaches like this. Thanks for the info!
I would worry about the loss of personal information, which could be used to apply for credit in my name. People often talk about the potential for embarrassing information. However, if someone stole my electronic medical record they would be sorely disappointed — if not totally bored with what they found.
Matthew – I blogged about this today: Privacy and Security: Joke or No Joke? (HealthBlawg) – http://vsb.li/Y9LHfd — Waiting for folks to obey the laws and shy away from discrimination in employment and insurance is still a pipe dream at this point, but since HIPAA and the threat of sanctions isn’t enough to move payors and providers to be more careful with data, it’s clear that the HIPAA model has become almost entirely irrelevant. If the data were public, there would be no incentive to steal it. if we could make enforcement of the anti-discrimination rules a reality, we could take that step of making data public, and then we could redirect our energies in more productive directions.