As a society we’ve been using insurance companies to help us protect our physical assets for more than 100 years. Whether it’s protecting our homes, businesses, cars or even physical well-being, we use insurance for everything.
However, it’s only recently that we’ve begun to realize that our digital assets, and in particular our patient data, has significant monetary value. An article published by Reuters in September 2014 stated that, “Your medical information is worth 10 times more than your credit card number on the black market.” Because of the value that personal health information has to hackers, it’s important to take key steps to protect and secure your patient information.
Three simple steps you can take to protect your information are:
1) Try to send PHI to providers and patients using encrypted email. This makes it significantly more difficult to hack into the information you are sending. Health Insurance Accountability and Portability Act also requires health care providers to encrypt patient information when it is being shared digitally between health care professionals. By using encrypted email, you’re protecting your digital data and helping your office to become more HIPAA compliant.
2) Backup and store your data in a separate location. Make sure if you’re backing up online that your data being transferred is encrypted and secure. Having multiple versions of your digital data will help to ensure that if a disaster does occur, a reliable copy of your data will be available when you need it most.
3) Last but not least, even if we take numerous precautions to protect PHI, it makes sense to consider protecting your assets with cyber protection coverage. It could help protect you in the event of a cyber breach.
Wisconsin Dental Association members have access to a number of electronic business products and insurance coverage with a member discount. Learn more
