Nov 30 2010

Due diligence is the cost of doing business for healthcare

Category: hipaaDISC @ 1:31 pm


According to an estimates, the Healthcare in US may be vulnerable to $6 billion annually from data losses in various forms.

A survey done by the privacy and data-management firm Ponemon Institute found that Healthcare organizations are still using primitive data management techniques and run the risk of spending an average of US $1 million per year dealing with data losses. These can be in the form of damage control, litigation and loss of revenue from clients transferring to other facilities, among others.

From October 2009 to March 2010, patient information from insurance company WellPoint was accessible to the public through its website, revealing information on 32,000 new clients. Meanwhile, insurance company AmeriHealth Mercy recently admitted to misplacing a USB drive that contained information for 280,000 Medicaid members.
Data included full names, birth dates, addresses, SSNs, telephone numbers, email addresses, financial information, and health records. Patients risk suffering public embarrassment and identity theft, which can be used for both medical and financial purposes.

Build your own Information Secrity Management System which cover the HIPAA controls, basic due diligence for information security and privacy controls will pay its dividend in the long run and simply is the cost of doing business for healthcare industry.

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