The hype around data breaches in the health industry may seem commonplace and cause complacency. Last year, it was Anthem and Premera Blue Cross suffering attacks affecting nearly 90 million people combined. Among others, last month it was Banner Health – a nationwide health system based in Arizona – which reported a cyberattack affecting 3.7 million patients and customers.
This month the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) levied a $5.5M fine on Advocate Health Care Network, the highest penalty to date on a health care organization having a data breach that caused a violation of HIPAA. The fine is in addition to the other costs and damages facing Advocate Health Care Network.