Data breaches over the next five years will cost U.S. health systems $305 billion in cumulative lifetime revenue, according to a new report from Accenture. Key drivers behind the increase can be attributed to the significant increase in EHR adoption and other healthcare technology solutions creating a wealth of electronic information that includes patient data such as dates of birth, home addresses, social security records, insurance details and medical data. As a result of this new-found abundance of patient data, Accenture estimates that 1 in 13 patients – roughly 25 million people – will have personal information, such as social security or financial records, stolen from technology systems over the next five years.
Last month, the Senate passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, a bill that intends to improve cybersecurity by getting companies to share information about their hacking threats with the federal government. Passed by a 74-21 vote, the bill includes a provision co-authored by Alexander and Senate health committee Ranking Member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) that would help protect against health care industry data breaches.
With healthcare security breaches reaching an all-time high, the following infographic created by DataMotion illustrates a brief history of security data breaches in healthcare and how they have increased over time.
