The report, released Wednesday, was immediately followed by a letter from the chairs of eight Senate committees (all Republican), requesting the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to release detailed information on the impact of the incidents, which included 41 involving “personally identifiable information.”
“Today’s GAO report also reveals that the Department of Health and Human Services does not have complete records of how many people these incidents impacted, despite a 2013 GAO recommendation that the department keep such documentation,” the letter reads.
Niam Yaraghi, a fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation told AMI Newswire that his own research on the topic is leading to similar findings as the GAO. He noted that while the findings speak to a problem with security in the health care site, the incidents outlined in the report do not seem to be overly concerning.
“Neither the number of the breaches, nor their magnitude, is as bad as it looks,” Yaraghi said. “So, sleep easy at night, but still, at the same time, healthcare is still … vulnerable to healthcare breaches.”
