The American Hospital Association is supporting a bill designed to increase the healthcare cybersecurity workforce in rural America.
The Rural Hospital Cybersecurity Enhancement Act, led by U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., would direct HHS to create a strategy to train more professionals and enact partnerships to boost rural hospital cybersecurity.
“Rural hospitals can face unique risks, challenges and impacts when defending against cyberattacks,” the AHA wrote in a Jan. 14 letter to the bill’s sponsors. “This framework will give rural hospitals tools to strengthen cybersecurity and mitigate risks associated with harmful cyber threats.”
As larger health systems have fortified their cyber defenses in recent years, hackers have turned their attention to rural hospitals, executives have told Becker’s. However, those facilities often lack cybersecurity expertise and are harder hit than their urban counterparts when attacks do happen.
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