There were more than 50 million patient records breached in 2021, according to a March 10 report from healthcare compliance analytics company Protenus.
The number of affected patient records increased by 24 percent last year, according to the company's "Breach Barometer Report." There were more than 40.7 million patient records compromised in 2020.
The number of reported breaches in 2021 increased by 19 percent. There were 905 reported in 2021 compared to 758 in 2020.
Hacking incidents accounted for 75 percent of breaches in 2021.
The largest incident in 2021 was the result of a hack involving the IT business associate of Tallahassee-based Florida Healthy Kids Corp., a Medicaid health plan, according to the report. The incident affected as many as 3.5 million people who applied for health insurance between 2013 and December 2020.
Incidents were compiled and analyzed by DataBreaches.net, with additional research and analyses provided by Protenus, according to a Protenus news release.
Download the full report here.