There has been a surge in cybercrime in 2020 due to the pandemic, and all sectors experienced their fair share of data breaches. However, according to a report, the healthcare sector in the United States experienced a staggering 51% increase in data breaches compared to the 2019 figures. Although the healthcare sector's total share of data breaches is still significantly low compared to the IT and finance sector, the average cost of a breach in healthcare stayed higher than that of all other industries in 2020 and increased 10.5% since 2019.

As alarming as it is, the healthcare sector is incredibly ill-positioned to withstand network outages, making it a perfect target for ransomware groups. But this sector was not particularly hard impacted until 2019, as these facilities do not have the financial resources to pay the vast ransoms that cybercriminals seek. While the fundamental reasons for breaches can be difficult to pinpoint, the study suggests that a failure to vulnerability patching coupled with the rising black-market value of medical records may be driving the growing criminal interest in the sector.

Personal health information (PHI) is more valuable than credit card credentials or regular personally identifiable information (PII) on the black market. As a result, cybercriminals have a greater incentive to target medical databases. They can either sell the PHI or use it for their benefit. According to the health and human services breach report, over 15 million health records have been compromised by data breaches so far. Credential-stealing malware, an insider who deliberately or mistakenly reveals patient data, or stolen laptops or other devices are all examples of occurrences that might lead to this.

The average cost of a data breach for a non-healthcare organization is $158 per stolen record, but a PHI's average price is $355. According to the recent McAfee Labs report, credit card information and PII sell for $1-$2 on the black market, whereas PHI may sell for as much as $363. This is because, unlike credit card information or Social Security numbers, one's personal health history, including diseases, sicknesses, surgeries, and so on, cannot be changed.

PHI is significant because criminals may use it to target victims with frauds and scams based on the victim's medical problems or settlements. It may also be used to fabricate insurance claims, enabling the purchase and resale of medical equipment. PHI is also used by certain criminals to get illicit access to medications for personal use or resale.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandates that healthcare providers preserve electronic health records (HER)s with appropriate physical and technological measures to maintain the security of patient data. Breaches of over 500 records must be notified, whether they result from a hacking event, an accident, lost or stolen equipment, or illegal internal access and ransomware infections.

The only way forward from this would be for the healthcare organizations to prioritize and fix the vulnerabilities that are most certainly targeted by coordinated ransomware attacks and implement a regular check-up and patching program. Some other measures that the healthcare sector organizations can take are:

Comprehensive Employee Training Programs

While some breaches are caused by sophisticated hacking, others are caused by inexperienced personnel mishandling PHI. Therefore, a comprehensive employee training program for those who interact with health records during the data lifecycle must be a top priority for all healthcare organizations.

Boost Data Protection

Patient records must be safe from the moment they are created until they are destroyed. Electronic documents should have a thorough audit trail when in use, and paper records should be securely stored in a place with limited access while not in use. Offsite records should be kept in approved and secure facilities. All paper and electronic documents should be securely destroyed using NAID-certified techniques at the end of their life cycle.

Conduct self-audits

HIPAA performs frequent and thorough audits to verify that adequate safeguards for patient privacy are in place. Organizations should also implement their own performance and compliance monitoring and frequent self-audits to guarantee compliance and prevent fines.

Streamline Procedures

Maintaining compliance with complicated state and federal rules is complex, and the medical sector leaves minimal space for human mistakes. A unified medical records management platform may enhance accuracy, ensure consistency, and safeguard patients by automating critical and time-consuming operations.

Medical Records Management

Most of us would agree that keeping track of records has never been simple. It was not easy when they were on paper, and it is far more complex now that records are almost entirely electronic. Thankfully the challenges that records managers face are being alleviated by modern technology. All that needs to be done is to recognize and understand your challenges so that you can bring in the best solution to your problems. So, let us look at some frequent challenges with modern-day records management and the possible solutions to them.

Challenges

Incomplete Data

Incomplete or scattered data makes a records management system moot, as retaining only a portion of all records nullifies its compliance and legal purpose. Data can be incomplete due to reasons such as errors in manual data entry procedures, incorrect data mapping, or flawed data crawling and journaling tactics. A common cause for such errors is that the data residing in different data repositories (also known as data silos) segregated by data type, such as emails, files, messages, and more. When records are separated by type it is difficult to systematically find and archive them. Since there is no synergy between these separate data sources, collecting and managing data also becomes complex.

Retention

Due to the sheer number of files, manually deleting or retaining documents is unfeasible. Organizations have to retain millions, if not billions, of records in their systems, no person or manual process could possibly remember each document’s predetermined lifecycle and defensibly go in and delete expired records in a timely fashion.

Defensibility

It becomes impossible to establish the chain of events on a file in the archive without an audit trail. It is difficult to tell who saw the data and for how long without the chain of events. Additionally, without an audit trail, determining what retention policies were used and whether they were changed is also tricky.

Solution

Incomplete Data

To ensure that your records are complete, you will need to scour all repositories across all data sources to find and archive documents that need to be retained. Though the collection method may vary from business to business, the goal remains the same: Gather records in one place or a single repository. This is also known as data archiving. By placing the information in a single repository, you prevent the data from being siloed.

Retention

To combat this problem, you will need a solution that can automatically figure out which files must be retained and when they can be later deleted. This requires the records management software to be able to differentiate between multiple different types of records, each of which have different retention periods, as dictated by industry regulations and laws.

Defensibility

Every activity done on the data in the archive, including reviewer activities, searches, and policy creation and updates, is recorded in an audit trail. It acts as proof of who did what and when. A solution that rigorously maintains an audit trail is essential for compliance reasons and as proof of your actions.

Conclusion