Fred C Church

Healthcare providers in Detroit are becoming increasingly concerned about and focused on data security as they make the shift to using electronic health records (EHRs), possibly encouraged by the 11 medical data breaches since 2009 which have involved information on 500 or more patients each.

Cases involving fewer people are not required to be reported, the Detroit Free Press notes, but those together accounted for at least 118,000 individuals' personal medical information. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that more than 390 breaches of that magnitude have occurred in the nation as a whole since September 2009, when penalties for data loss were increased.

Those breaches have involved data for at least 19 million people, and smaller ones are not included in the figures. Security consultant Rick Kam told the paper that it is not surprising healthcare professionals are not usually focused on data security, since they tend to be more concerned with and trained to deal with health issues and patient care.

Business liability insurance rates may be lower for organizations that take appropriate security precautions, such as avoiding the unnecessary use of mobile devices or encrypting data when it is being transferred. A certified risk manager may be able to help providers cut down on major sources of risk, which include lost or stolen computing devices, accidental actions by employees and unintentional release by contractors, according to a Ponemon Institute study.