By Evy Schwartz

When are health care companies going to learn that they must comply with the latest laws and regulations? HIPAA and HITECH were passed for a reason but time-after-time we see data breaches happening due to violations.

The latest debacle happened right here in San Antonio, TX. Tricare, a provider of health care services to active and retired military personnel, disclosed that a 3rd party technology contractor lost backup tapes containing sensitive patient health information while transferring them between Federal facilities. Well, lost may be the wrong word.  The tapes were actually stolen…out of a car. And of course the data is not encrypted.

So in today’s world of advanced technology and strict regulations, we continue to see these data breaches happen. Approximately 4.9 million people were affected. Names, addresses, social security numbers and more data (no direct financial data, however) are on the backup tapes for those who visited a military treatment center in San Antonio from 1992 to September 7, 2011.

Tricare is going to be out a lot of money for this mistake. The sad part is this type of archaic handling of data happens everyday. People load up sensitive data on USB sticks and Fed Ex them. They send data through non-secure email programs. They store data on unencrypted servers. The list goes on-and-on.

If you’re wondering if your company is handling its data properly or fully complying with HIPAA, HITECH or other such regulations but you aren’t sure, call us.  If your data security system is out of date or a homegrown solution that may not be up to today’s standards, call us. If your company has outgrown its current solution and you need to add advanced features like automation, call us. It’s much better to prevent the breach than dealing with bad press, huge fines and angry customers. 

You can reach us at 800-290-5054 or you can get more information about our data security solutions for managed file transfer here.