How a single ransomware attack destroyed a thriving medical business and how to avoid it happening to you or your clients. I was sitting at a local breakfast spot near my home in Michigan one recent morning with a friend. I was discussing my work (online training for compliance and security in healthcare), when a neighbor leaned in to say she overheard me and wanted to share a story she thought I might be interested in. Apparently, a medical practice that did quite well in the Battle Creek area, experienced a data breach which locked down all of their patient records and accompanying files. Shortly thereafter they received a “ransom” message requiring them to pay $6500 for the key to unlock those files. Ransomware attacks are becoming more and more common in healthcare. The payload is a...

Create a Culture of Healthcare Site Compliance in 5 Simple Steps The recent Center for Disease Control (CDC) report on Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States (2019 AR Threats Report) includes the latest national death and infection estimates that underscore the growing risk of antibiotic resistance in the US. According to the report, more than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections (superbugs) occur in the United States each year, and more than 35,000 people die as a result. In addition, more than 200,000 cases of Clostridioides difficile (C-diff) were tracked in 2017 with over 12,000 deaths. Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. has stated that the CDC soon plans to support Antibiotic Resistance Prevention Programs in all 50 states. Clinical practitioners are tasked with...

Remain Calm, Remain Honest – and Remain in Business Avoiding the inevitable does not make it go away. Healthcare patients choose a provider based on the quality of care. In addition to that, the public will generally assume that their private information is safeguarded and not something that they need to verify or investigate before choosing that specific provider. By alerting them to something they assumed to be a non-issue, it is understandable to be concerned about the loss of business. However, credit reporting agency Experian has recently found that this churn can be kept to a minimum with the proper response plan. In July 2019, Experian surveyed 1,000 adults in the United States and found that 90% of those surveyed would be somewhat forgiving if they were informed promptly as a...

Since at least the beginning of the summer, it seems as though no day can go by without another phishing incident being reported by a healthcare entity. The reports are almost always the same too. After some period of time (usually not the same day), unauthorized activity will be found in the email account of one or more employee. A forensic analysis will be conducted that cannot conclusively determine what, if any, patient information or other data were accessed. Out of an abundance of caution though, a breach notification is provided to enable potentially impacted individuals to monitor accounts in the event of suspicious activity, with the entity sometimes covering the cost of such monitoring. Despite the somewhat tongue in cheek tone being given to the nature of the responses, being...