The breach was first reported in February by Databreaches.net, which was notified by security compliance firm, Gemini Advisory that the payment details of 200,000 patients from the billing collection provider were on sale on a dark web marketplace. The information is believed to have been compromised between September 2018 and March 2019, according to Databreaches.net.

Dr. Teow-Hin Ngair, CEO of SecureAge, a government and enterprise data security and encryption provider, says that such events are unfortunately common within the healthcare industry due to the community not paying enough attention to cybersecurity, compared to other facets of healthcare.

"This is not the first time the healthcare industry has seen a breach in client information. One of the fundamental issues is that medical agencies, providers and hospitals aren't making cybersecurity enough of a priority in general," he told HCB News. "This could stem from the fact that lost patient records do not really impact their business directly — and they don't lose any money directly resulting from patient record breaches. Unless more regulations are put in place, this will continue to be a recurring issue."

This is a developing story. HealthCare Business News will update it as more information is released.

Back to HCB News

Health IT Homepage