Posts Tagged ‘HHS’

Statistics on HHS published breaches affecting 500 or more individuals per HITECH requirements, more than 1 million affected individuals

HHS publishing healthcare breaches

From September 2009 through January 2010 there were 36 breaches affecting an estimated 1,073,657 individuals reported to the HHS. Here are some statistics:

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Where were the breaches?

• 28% in California
• 11% in Michigan
• 11% in Texas
• 8% in DC
• 8% in Illinois
• 33% in 10 other states

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How many individuals were estimated to be affected?

• 47% in Tennesee (506,400)
• 33% in Florida (349,000)
• 8% in New York (83,000)
• 4% in California (48,283)
• 7% in other states (76,974)

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What were the types of breaches?

• Theft was involved with 74% of the breaches making up 90% of the number of individuals affected
• Unauthorized access was involved with 20% of the breaches making up 4% of the individuals
• The other types (Loss, Mailing, Hacking/IT Incident, Misdirected Email, Phishing) were involved with 19% of the breaches making up 9% of the individuals

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Where was the information stored?

• Laptops were involved with 22% of the breaches affecting 36% of the individuals
• Desktop computers were involved with 17% of the breaches affecting 3% of the individuals
• Portable electronic devices were involved with 8% of the breaches affected 3% of the individuals
• Hard drives were involved with 1% of the breaches affected 47% of the individuals
• Post cards were involved with 1% of the breaches affected 8% of the individuals
• Other locations were: mailings, backup tapes, CD's, Electronic Medical Record systems, Paper Records, Films, Network Servers and Email.

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More details in the post.

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HIPAA complaints to HHS OCR drop in 2009

HIPAA complaints to the HSS OCR dropped significantly in 2009.

• No analysis was provided by the OCR as to the cause of the drop.
• Approximately 20% of the complaints required corrective actions to be taken

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Release of the National Health Security Strategy by HHS – no direct mention of network security?

Release of the National Health Security Strategy by Health and Human Services

• Protecting health during an emergency
• Preparation for bioterrorism and natural disasters
• Implementation guide with 10 objectives

Interesting that there is no direct mention of how the Internet and network security impact this plan

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