One in 13 patients will have their personal information, such as Social Security, health or financial records, hacked and stolen within the next five years. The cumulative costs of the breaches and the resulting stolen data could reach $305 billion for health systems in the U.S., according to an Accenture report.
Using historical security breach data from the HHS' Office of Civil Rights, the report projected the number of patients likely to be affected by data breaching in the next five years. This data showed in the past year, nearly 1.6 million people had their medical information stolen. In the next five years, this number is likely to increase to 6 million, 25 percent of whom will likely experience medical identity theft. Accenture projects the out-of-pocket costs for victims will total nearly $56 billion in that time.
The report concludes being proactive about cybersecurity can make a big difference for organizations, although many are not necessarily well prepared to deal with the inevitability of a significant data breach.