On June 16, 2021, Thora Johnson, Erik Jones, and Ryann Aaron published “Healthcare Breaches Are on the Rise During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Government Enforcement Actions Are Keeping Pace” in ABA Health eSource. The following is an excerpt:
The move to electronic health records encouraged by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and the 21st Century Cures Act has transformed the medical record system. Couple that with the COVID-19 pandemic, which hastened the move to telehealth, and that an ever-increasing amount of healthcare data is being generated and stored electronically. Bad actors have taken notice. In 2020, healthcare data breaches of 500 or more records were reported at a rate of more than 1.76 per day, and 2020 saw 642 large data breaches reported by covered entities and business associates – a 25 percent increase from 2019.