Written by Karen Pursch, Director, Patient Privacy Solutions
I recently read this article from HealthData Management — Privacy, security issues cause consumers to distrust HIT — published on January 9th, 2017.
With all the news going on today about ransomware and the increased number of privacy breaches, we sometimes forget about how these breaches are eroding the trust patients place with their healthcare provider.
I was surprised to see the results from a recent Black Book survey reaching 12,000 Americans. This survey revealed that 93 percent of the respondents believe the security of their personal financial information is at risk. As a result of privacy and security concerns, 89 percent of consumers who visited a provider in 2016 reported that they withheld health information during those visits.
The loss of patient trust due to these various factors not only affects healthcare organizations financially, but, also, can negatively impact patient care and reimbursement. At a hospital having a public data breach, patients are less likely to tell their caregivers about critical health information they might need to properly care for the patient. In addition, quality issues and higher 30-day readmissions could mean that organizations would lose up to 2% of Value Based Payments (VBP), and 3% of readmissions. This will lead to lower HCAHPS scores meaning fewer new patients and lower reimbursement.
Patient trust should be used as a competitive advantage. Good performance in an audit can become a marketing tool for healthcare organizations.
Please register for the upcoming Patient Privacy webinar series, to see how you can use Security Audit Manager™ to reduce breaches in your healthcare organization, and use patient trust as a strategic advantage.
