How a Cybersecurity Insurance Policy Protects Your Healthcare Group

When you started your medical practice, your number one goal was to help people. Too many people are turned away when they seek healthcare, and you wanted to change that. You instituted a payment plan and sought to accept as many health insurance plans as possible. The only thing you didn't think to get was cybersecurity healthcare coverage.

It doesn't matter how good you are at your job or how likeable your staff is, without a cybersecurity healthcare insurance plan, you could lose everything because a nefarious cybercriminal saw an opportunity and took it.

Don't think a hacker would be interested in your medical practice? Well think again. Advocate Health Care had to pay a whopping $5.5 million in HIPPA penalties and their network had been hit by not one, not two but three cyberattacks! The electronic health records of over 4 million of the health care network's patients were jeopardized, violating HIPPA regulations.

Health and Human Services (HHS) instituted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) in 1996 that required the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create a list of regulations that would help to protect the highly private information in patients' health records. The regulations are what have come to be known as the HIPPA Privacy Rule. The Security Rule set the national standard when it came to protecting patients' medical record and other private health information.

The Privacy Rule requires that healthcare providers use the necessary physical and cybersecurity defenses to protect their patients' confidential information, including social security numbers, driver's license numbers and other classified information.

Why Healthcare Providers?
Cybercriminals are hitting the healthcare industry with a wave of ransomware attacks because the information they are able to glean from the records assists them in committing financial fraud. Unlike stolen credit card numbers that can be canceled and changed, your name, driver's license and SSN cannot be changed. These sell on the dark market quickly, but it doesn't compare to the monumental sales of health insurance information.

Health insurance can (and is) used to commit medical fraud. Cybercriminals and their buyers can use your health insurance information to get free medical care or buy expensive medical equipment to then sell on the black market.

In 2014, the FBI warned healthcare providers that cybercriminals were upping the ante and going after poorly cyber managed healthcare networks. According to Reuters, "cybercriminals were getting paid $20 for health insurance credentials on some underground markets, compared with $1 to $2 for U.S. credit card numbers."

So, how can a cybersecurity healthcare insurance plan protect your practice? Here's how:

Cybersecurity insurance protects against criminal, civil suit and HIPPA-related risk. Cybercriminals can and will encrypt, steal or destroy your patients' medical data. Unless you pay a ransom to get the data back, they will sell it on the black market or use it to blackmail your patients. This gives your patients the right to sue you and your healthcare group, destroying your reputation and medical group.

Cybersecurity healthcare insurance covers the cost of data retrieval and litigation. Though it'll take a little longer to build your reputation back up, you won't be in a financial hole.

And guess what: when you invest in a cybersecurity and business insurance plan, you are demonstrating to your patients that you are doing all you can to protect their interests, making you the healthcare hero of the day. To get a free cybersecurity healthcare insurance quote, visit CyberPolicy today.

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