In May, the Health Sector Coordinating Council (HSCC) urged the US government to fund healthcare cybersecurity solutions for financially strained hospitals, warning that understaffed and resourced healthcare systems are increasingly at risk to ransomware attacks that threaten patient safety and care.
HSCC, in a report titled ‘On the Edge’ submitted to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which claims financially constrained healthcare providers urgently need federal funding and workforce support to defend against escalating healthcare cybersecurity threats.
The report, On the Edge, is based on cybersecurity issues looming large over the healthcare sector, with interviews that included 42 senior executives, discusses how only 14% of respondents had fully staffed cybersecurity teams, with 30% reporting severe staff shortages.
“We learned that most providers know what needs to be done; they simply lack the capacity and resources to put best practices into action,” said the HSCC working group in the whitepaper that was part of the submissions to the White House and Congress.
Jackie Mattingly, a former health system Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and a consultant at Clearwater, backed the recommendations, calling them “are both timely and realistic,” adding, “cybersecurity should be recognized as a core component of care delivery and operational continuity.”
Why Cybersecurity Is Important for the Healthcare Industry
HSCC’s recommendations include allowing cybersecurity expenses to be compensated for by healthcare cybersecurity threat awareness Medicare and Medicaid, creating billing codes for staff training and risk assessments, and extending discounted General Services Administration (GSA) pricing to small providers.
“Extending GSA pricing would help level the playing field, allowing these providers to access vetted solutions at more affordable rates,” mentioned Mattingly, who highlighted that smaller hospitals often pay more for basic cyber tools.
The group also called for federal solutions to improve healthcare cybersecurity
workforce expansion through managed security service providers and student internships. “Workforce challenges are due, in part, to a resource constraint problem,” the report highlighted.
However, HSCC criticized third-party vendors as a growing threat. In 2023, 58% of individuals affected by healthcare data breaches were impacted by attacks on third-party providers.
“Health providers should not bear the sole burden for policing their vendors,” said members of the group in a statement.
Updates for healthcare cybersecurity risk management keys to an effective plan by the HIPPA Security Rule, aimed at increasing accountability for business associates. The council recommended trying federal incentives to cybersecurity progress similar to the earlier “meaningful use” EHR program.
Mattingly suggested a tiered compensation model to encourage incremental improvement across different healthcare cybersecurity solutions maturity levels.
“Now is the time for action and investment,” the report concludes, emphasizing that without dedicated support, many rural and under-resourced providers may remain dangerously exposed to threats that jeopardize both patient safety and national healthcare infrastructure.
Cybersecurity Issues and Solutions for Big Data Systems in Healthcare
As the evolving landscape of cybersecurity in healthcare industry is increasingly relying on big data technologies for diagnosis, treatment planning, and patient monitoring, the risks of inadequate cybersecurity proliferate. The HSCC report points out that without strong defenses, sensitive health information and critical systems remain the main targets for ransomware attacks and data breaches.
Healthcare cybersecurity solutions strengthening is not just an issue of protecting records, it’s an issue of protecting the digital infrastructure that supports modern medicine. As big datasets flow across providers, insurers, and third-party platforms, protecting big data systems is now important for trust, care continuity, and national health security.
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