Healthcare organizations are among the most targeted institutions for cybercrimes. And it's not hard to see why. Patient data naturally includes extremely valuable information about a person's identity that can easily be exploited by cybercriminals. 

At the same time, the move towards digital systems has created a huge surge in the volume of data collected, stored, and transmitted by modern healthcare organizations. That has many cybercriminals chomping at the bit to get their hands on your patients' data, making data privacy in healthcare a significant challenge for organizations. 

In this blog, we'll examine what data privacy in healthcare is and the healthcare data security challenges that organizations must answer to keep patient data safeguarded in the digital world. 

What Is Data Privacy in Healthcare?

Modern healthcare organizations collect, store, and transmit vast amounts of patient data, and each must take steps to safeguard that sensitive patient information from unauthorized access or misuse. 

In practice, healthcare data privacy is concerned with three areas of sensitive data:

• Personal Identifiable Information (PII): Any type of data that can be used to identify a person, such as names, addresses, Social Security numbers (SSNs) and dates of birth.

• Protected Health Information (PHI): Covers health information regarding an individual's physical or mental health, the care or treatments they have received or will receive, and medical payments. Includes medical histories, diagnoses, lab results, and prescriptions.

• Electronic Health Records (EHR): A digital form of health and medical records, including data from wearable devices, apps, and telehealth platforms.  

To protect data privacy in healthcare, organizations must strictly control who is allowed to access these sensitive forms of patient data and when access is permitted.

While sometimes conflated, it's important to distinguish data privacy in healthcare from data security. Data privacy is about the rules around access, while data security is about keeping that data secure from unauthorized access.

Why Data Protection in Healthcare Matters

So why exactly is healthcare data so valuable to cybercriminals? 

Medical records present an extremely enticing target for hackers and would-be data thieves because of the complete picture medical data gives of an individual. 

Unlike a credit card that can be canceled if stolen, medical data is permanent—you can't simply reset your SSN, DOB, home address, or medical history. 

The PII, PHI, and EHR contained in a single patient's medical records can easily be used to open lines of credit, commit insurance fraud, or even to extort or blackmail victims by threatening to publicly expose their medical conditions and treatments. The threat of misuse can last for years after a data leak. 

Not only is there great potential for the abuse of patients whose data has been leaked, but there are significant repercussions for healthcare providers who fail to protect sensitive patient information.

Organizations that fail to protect patient data can face significant penalties, including:

• Fines from federal regulatory bodies in excess of a million dollars

• Civil and class action lawsuits from patients whose data has been exposed

• Potential criminal penalties, including jail time, for intentional misuse

• Enforced corrective action plans (CAPs) that require organizations to rebuild their compliance programs under government oversight

Beyond an immediate financial impact, data breaches also cause reputational damage to an organization. Patients may seek care elsewhere if they believe that their data is not safe, or if they feel an organization does not take serious steps to meet its legal and ethical obligations. 

Notable Healthcare Data Privacy Frameworks

Today's healthcare organizations are under increasing pressure to safeguard patient data from a growing list of global data security frameworks. 

The most important domestic and international regulatory frameworks are:

• HIPAA/HITECH: The most important U.S. based framework for healthcare data privacy is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Established in 1996 to create a broad framework for protecting health data, the HITECH Act was later added to strengthen HIPAA protections, while increasing penalties for non-compliance and adding strict data breach notification rules. 

• GDPR/UK GDPR: The European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK's counterpart go beyond data privacy in healthcare, applying comprehensive data privacy and security regulations to any organization that handles personal data of residents. Even though this framework is primarily for the EU, it can and does pertain to many American healthcare organizations who work with international patients.

• PIPEDA: Healthcare providers who have commercial ties to Canada must abide by the country's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

• LGPD: Brazil has introduced its own privacy law, Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD), which draws heavily from the GDPR. Any organization that processes or uses data from Brazilians must comply with this regulation. 

Compliance with HIPAA/HITECH is mandatory for covered entities and their third-party partners operating within the U.S. It forms a baseline for healthcare data compliance. However, the rise of international data privacy regulations means compliance often extends beyond domestic frameworks. 

Why Data Protection in Healthcare Is Now a Global Challenge

The very infrastructure of modern healthcare has become globalized. 

Take for example cloud-based platforms. These providers process, store, and send data around the world, due to distributed data centers that can span multiple countries. Medical research is often international, and AI-driven analytics can draw on data from international sources, making many U.S.-based organizations subject to international data privacy laws. 

Many of the requirements of global privacy frameworks overlap with HIPAA/HITECH, but they can also be contradictory. That makes it difficult for an organization to understand exactly what their obligations are on their own.

In addition, cybercrime has no regard for international borders. Attackers may be based in other countries, and will seek out the most vulnerable targets no matter where they are based. 

To stay on top of these challenges, many healthcare organizations choose to consult with medical privacy lawyers or healthcare data security attorneys. 

These legal professionals understand the requirements of global data privacy frameworks and can interpret your legal obligations accordingly. Without professional guidance, you run the risk of leaving your organization vulnerable to privacy and security compliance violations that can cost you significant losses.

The Primary Healthcare Data Security Challenges

The high potential for abuse of healthcare data and the severe consequences for organizations that fail to meet their obligations makes healthcare data privacy and security a major focus for any organization that handles PII, PHI, or EHR. 

Some of the biggest healthcare data security challenges include:

Cyberattacks

The high value of medical data makes hospitals and healthcare providers prime targets for cybercrimes, with ransomware being one of the biggest threats. Ransomware can lock an organization out of its own computer systems until a ransom payment is made. Attackers know that hospitals cannot afford unplanned or extended downtime, making it more likely for them to pay.

Legacy Systems

Many hospitals and healthcare organizations have limited budgets and use old hardware and software, commonly known as legacy systems. Legacy systems often lack modern security features like encryption, putting these organizations at risk of data theft. 

Human Error 

One of the leading causes of data breaches is human error. This often comes in the form of weak or ineffective passwords, but can also come from phishing attacks. These attacks can trick employees into opening links that download spyware, ransomware, or other nefarious programs onto hospital systems.

Employee Bad Actors

Another leading cause of data breaches involves employee or other internal bad actors. Disgruntled employees and insiders are a main cause of privacy and security issues.  Developing policies and processes to prevent these bad actors from achieving their goals is critical.

Third-Party Risk

Healthcare organizations that work with third-party vendors, billing providers, or SaaS companies that handle PHI must take precautions to ensure that these partners are compliant with data privacy and security regulations. If a partner suffers a breach and your patients are affected, you could share the liability.

New Attack Surfaces

New technologies are expanding the available attack surfaces for cybercrimes, making healthcare data privacy and security about more than just the traditional systems that are physically housed in your organization. New attack surfaces range from telehealth and cloud-based platforms to mobile devices and medical devices connected to the internet of things (IoT).

Practical Healthcare Data Protection Solutions to Help You Stay Compliant

Healthcare data protection and compliance can feel impossible at times, but there are ways to manage data privacy that can ease the burden. 

1. Technical Controls Require Clear Governance

Achieving healthcare data compliance requires strong technical controls like network monitoring and encryption to keep data safe. But those technical controls don't mean much if there are no clear rules about who can access and use that data. Rules around technical controls as well as incident response plans must be thoroughly documented to reduce compliance gaps.

2. Data Privacy in Healthcare is Not a One-and-Done Deal

Achieving compliance with HIPAA/HITECH and other privacy frameworks is a starting point, but maintaining compliance requires ongoing effort. The evolving nature of technology and security threats means organizations must regularly revisit technical controls and continually test their incident response plans to remain compliant. 

3. Scalability Means Adaptability

As your organization grows, you must be able to adapt to new compliance requirements. Your organization may work with global vendors, or utilize a cloud platform that processes data in an overseas data center. Privacy frameworks that only focus on domestic compliance likely won't hold up under international frameworks. You must be prepared to continually reassess your security baselines and vendor relationships to keep compliant as your organization scales.

4. Align Healthcare Data Protection Across Departments

If you are involved with healthcare, every department in your organization likely touches PII, PHI, and EHR. When departments operate in their own silos, it can be nearly impossible to maintain compliance. Alignment across your organization is essential for effective data privacy in healthcare.

SVTech: Healthcare Data Security Attorneys

Managing healthcare data privacy has become increasingly complex. As organizations move from a reliance on local hardware to cloud-based data management, they become more susceptible to healthcare data security challenges. 

In addition, as organizations scale, compliance with domestic healthcare data protection regulations like HIPAA/HITECH is not enough. The growing number of international data privacy frameworks demand compliance for organizations that routinely handle data of international citizens, or who use cloud platforms where data is processed, stored, or transmitted across borders. 

To stay in compliance, healthcare data privacy requires an ongoing commitment from your entire organization. The best way to do that is by aligning your healthcare data privacy strategy across your entire organization and routinely testing your response protocols. 

For healthcare organizations looking to navigate global data privacy challenges, working alongside a healthcare data security attorney is essential.

With over 25 years of experience serving Bay Area technology companies, SVTech has the skill to help you achieve and remain in compliance. We can help you assess your vulnerabilities and streamline compliance across every aspect of your organization so that you can scale confidently.

Contact SVTech today for an initial consultation, and let us help you develop a comprehensive approach to healthcare data privacy that enables compliance in a globally connected industry. 

**Disclaimer**

The information provided in this blog post is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult with a qualified attorney to address your specific legal needs.