Hackers Could Cost Healthcare $305 Billion
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
According to an Accenture report, providers could be out over $300 billion cumulative lifetime revenue over the next five years due solely to damage from cyber-attacks. Fierce Health IT explains that, by 2020, roughly one in every 13 patients (more than 25 million people) will have their personal information stolen through technology.
“What most health systems don’t realize is that many patients will suffer personal financial loss as a result of cyberattacks on medical information,” said Kaveh Safavi, M.D., J.D., managing director of Accenture's global healthcare business in an announcement. “If healthcare providers are complacent to safeguarding personal information, they’ll risk losing substantial revenues and patients as a result of medical identity theft.”
iHealth Beat reports that of the patients affected, six million will become medical identity theft victims and four million will pay out-of-pocket costs related to medical identity theft.
The five steps Accenture recommends providers take to fight cyber-crime are:
- assessing security capability to identify areas for improvement
- developing end-to-end delivery and sourcing
- embracing emerging technologies to increase efficiency
- establishing an end-to-end enterprise security program to integrate with existing enterprise processes
- increasing understanding of security intelligence to develop threat-centered operations
“In the end, when a breach occurs, the goal is not to say ‘what is our plan,’ but, ‘how is our plan working?’” Safavi said.