A single patient’s medical record is worth $50 on the black market, according to data reported at the Digital Health Conference in New York City. Leading industry experts expect the frequency, severity, and impact of data breaches to escalate with global networks and use of advanced sinister technologies, threatening consumers’ information.
Simply put, stolen patient records is an easy and lucrative target for cybercriminials since a person cannot cancel their own medical history in comparison to a stolen credit card. This makes preventing and curbing medical identify theft extremely hard. Criminals can utilize the data found in your medical record to:
- file expensive claims with your insurance provider
- purchase prescription drugs to fuel their illegal drug enterprises
- get healthcare at the patient’s expense
EHR adoption has created even more opportunities for security breaches since electronic health information can be stolen from anywhere in the world, distributed to an infinite number of locations for an infinite period of time. The rise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in healthcare organizations also increases the opportunities for security breaches as more doctors/clinicians utilize their own personally-owned devices to access patient data.
The infographic shown below created by ID Experts, provides a snapshot of medical identity theft and data breaches over the last decade.
Source: ID Experts
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