The US Department of Health and Human Services maintains a public webpage that lists breaches affecting 500 or more individuals. Here are some extremely alarming facts for the month of July, 2016:
Breaches reported for the month: 26
Total number of affected records: 335,082
Average number of affected records per breach: 12,887
Number of each type of breach:
Hacking/IT Incident: 9
Theft: 6
Unauthorized Access/Disclosure: 11
Location of breach information:
Paper/Films: 5
Digital (email, electronic medical records, laptop, server, etc.): 21
Most disturbing is that these numbers have become fairly typical. Medical information data breaches are an ever-present threat to healthcare providers and patients alike.
You can review the details for yourself here on the government’s webside: https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/breach/breach_report.jsf
