Budgets Tops Providers' Security Concerns

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Aside from nosy employees and hacking, budget concerns top the list of provider worries when it comes to security.

What keeps healthcare providers up at night? According to a recent report from Peer60, data security is a real nightmare – especially when security breaches are costing more t han ever before.

“It’s estimated that the cost of data breaches in the healthcare industry could be as much as $5.6 billion annually … yes, billion with a ‘b.’ Combine this with government requirements for securing patient information, it’s no wonder that data security is no joke to top-level hospital decision-makers,” writes Peer60.

According to Fierce Health IT, only 12 percent of providers said they had no obstacles in achieving health data security, while others cited multiple hurdles.

“Providers recognize that they will have bumps in the road on the way to protecting patients’ healthcare data,” explains the report. “Lack of budget was the top reason providers listed that that limited their ability to protect healthcare data. Providers also said that employees lack of compliance with security policies. Both of these items were seen as issues for providers at all levels.”

Other key findings included:

• while some feel that total threat prevention is impossible, security managers and directors are more optimistic about their ability to deal with threats than CIOs
• hospitals with more than 500 beds are most likely to point to underlying security weaknesses of healthcare IT systems
• security managers also cite difficulty in keeping systems updated
• other priorities in descending order are data-loss prevention technology, mobile device encryption, network-access control technology, followed by use and behavioral monitoring technology
• mobile device management is the top priority for the largest hospitals