NORTH TEXAS (AP) — Whether it’s where you shop, bank or browse, cybersecurity breaches have become an unfortunate fact of our online lives. But there’s an extra sensitivity to the theft of medical information.
Parkland Health in Dallas is the latest to report a data breach.
“It’s a huge problem,” said Ben Singleton with NetGenius. “And the reason that we haven’t really seen any progress in it is because there’s no enforcement of cybersecurity requirements on medical providers.” Singleton, a cybersecurity expert, said that this is not a nosy neighbor concern: the end game is likely fraud, and Medicaid is a prized target.
“And so these claims start getting paid,” said Singleton, “and they continue using information that they’ve gathered from these breaches to file more and more claims. And that’s essentially how they’re using it.”
According to a government report, every year an estimated $60 billion is lost to Medicaid fraud, with much of that traced to stolen medical records. Healthcare.org reported 725 data breaches, impacting some 120 million people.