In today’s computer age so much of personal, business and
government information is stored on hard drives. Everyone uses data storage, so
when there is a breech, it is a concern for all. Just recently San Francisco Business Times reported on
a breech in data at a health care insurer. The article, Hard drives holding health data missing at medical insurer by Chris
Rauber discussed the loss of data at health insurer Centene. It appears that
six hard drives containing personal information on 950,000 people were
lost. According to the article, the
valuable data in health care records is of high interest to hackers bringing
anywhere from $10 to $50 per enrollee and $470 for Medicare enrollees. The
article says this was not the first time a breech in health records has
occurred. Just last year Anthem Inc. had a breech of 80 million records and in
years past, Stanford Health Care, Kaiser and other were also affected.
One important point is that the breech of hospital data seems
to be taken lightly by the health insurance companies involved. In the article
the CEO of Centene, Michael Neidorff stated, “While we don’t believe this
information has been used improperly, out of abundance of caution and in
transparency, we are looking for the hard drives” (Rauber p.1). Looking back at the article and seeing the
value of the information at hand, one would think that the CEO would make a
stronger statement to give enrollees more confidence in the company’s concern.
He could have explained what Centene will be doing in the future to stop the
further breech of data. However, it is difficult to find information on what
healthcare is doing to avoid this reoccurrence. According to an article from
the California Healthcare Foundation, many healthcare companies lack adequate
procedures to ensure the security of data records.
The frequency of breeches in healthcare data is concerning
because it is a reoccurring problem with no solution in sight. One can avoid
using credit cards at stores where data has been breeched, but with health care
it is not an option. Even children are at rick. According to an article by Herb
Weisbaum, their social security numbers are hardly used and therefore fraud is
harder to detect.
Centene is in the
process of merging with Health Net Inc. Will their enrollees be the next
victims if Centene is not secure? Health Net Inc. had little concern for the
issue stating, “the problem is ‘a Centene issue not a Health Net issue’”
(Rauber p.1).
The article overlooks the severity of the breech. How will
this breech affect enrollees? What will the frequency of data breeches do to
healthcare costs? How can enrollees protect themselves from this type of fraud?
With the high cost of healthcare being a major issue, data fraud seems to be
one of its culprits. It is a 21st century problem, which demands a
21st century solution.
Works Cited
"Health Care Industry Unprepared for
Data Breaches, Reports Find - IHealthBeat." Health Care Industry Unprepared for Data Breaches, Reports Find -
IHealthBeat. California Healthcare Foundation, n.d. Web. 07 Feb. 2016.
<http://www.ihealthbeat.org/articles/2013/4/29/health-care-industry-unprepared-for-data-breaches-reports-find>.
Rauber, Chris. "Hard Drives Holding
Health Data Missing at Medical Insurer." Biztalk. San Francisco Business Times, 26 Jan. 2016. Web. 07 Feb.
2016.
<http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2016/01/missing-hard-drives-health-data-centene.html>.
Weisbuam, Herb. "Millions of
Children Exposed to ID Theft Through Anthem Breach - NBC News." NBC News. N.p., 18 Feb. 2015. Web. 07
Feb. 2016.
<http://www.nbcnews.com/business/personal-finance/millions-children-exposed-id-theft-through-anthem-breach-n308116>.
It is crazy to think this was not the first time a breech in health records has occurred! Anthem Inc. with a breech of 80 million records, that is ridiculous! Health records are crucial and it is scary to think that there is not a solution in sight for this recurrence. The CEO of Centene’s statement was not comforting at all either, making this issue seemingly unimportant and unsolvable. This is a problem that deserves more attention and research. Hopefully the extremity of this breech will help highlight the need for more advanced security systems for health records.
ReplyDeleteI am absolutely startled by the amount of breaches in health records. These records are of utmost importance for everyone, as they contain information from past broken bones, to reactions to medicine, to current diseases. The astonishingly large number of breaches has me reminded of my support of shared medical data. In this case, since the hard drives containing the medical data were lost, all the data is likely lost forever, as there was no backup. If the Centene had shared its data with hospitals or research facilities, there may be a possibility they would still have access to that data. At the same time, if hospitals or insurance firms share medical data, if one hospital's data were to be breached, the hackers could potentially have access to more than just the hospital or firm's own data. Either way, the mass breaching of medical data is a serious issue that needs more attention.
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