According to Becker’s Clinical Leadership & Infection Control, April 2019 was the worst month on record for healthcare data breaches. Alone, there were three data breach occurrences which affected the disclosure of more than 439,000 patient charts.

Financial Impacts of A Healthcare Data Breach

According to www.hipaajournal.com, data breaches in healthcare are the highest of any industry in the United States. And as of July 2018, on average, a data breach costs the infected organization $408 per record. The average cost per record of data breaches in other industries averages $148 per record.

According to varonis.com, an industry-leading reporting and statistics website, there was an 80% increase in the number of patients affected by healthcare-related data breaches since 2017.

The history of data breaches reach back into the 1970’s with the first network virus ever reported as ‘The Creeper’.