Medical Waste: A Personal Information Goldmine!

Any kind of a data breach is scary. Companies are collecting more and more personal information these days, and individuals are offering more information than they even realize, especially with the use of smart devices, public wifi, and non-encrypted websites. It’s to the point where it’s not if a breach will occur, but when – the odds that any business will experience a breach is 1 in 4. Breaches can cost the victimized businesses millions – according to the Ponemon Institute’s Cost of Data Breach study, the average cost of a data breach in 2017 was $3.62 million – that’s a devastating number. And the industry with the highest number of breaches every year is healthcare.

The healthcare industry is an obvious target – think about all of the information you provide for any doctor or healthcare organization you deal with. Now multiply that by the number of people who may see the same doctor or go to the same organization, giving them the same amount of information. Now think about the sheer number of doctors and organizations out there, and how many people have their information housed in them across this country alone. When we say it’s a goldmine for hackers everywhere, that’s seriously an understatement. A Ponemon study done in 2016 on Privacy and Security of Healthcare Data showed that 90% of the healthcare organizations involved in the study had experienced a data breach in the last two years, and nearly 45% of them had more than five data breaches in the same time frame. Yikes!

Protect Your PHI

Because healthcare is the biggest target, the PHI (personal health information) you’ve given to your doctor, a hospital, a urgent care or clinic that was entered into an electronic system of some sort is considered fair game to a hacker. But most people don’t even think about the amount of PHI that can be found in medical waste. People typically think that their information is protected, even if it’s disposed of, but not everything is covered. If the facility or office isn’t following every rule for securely disposing of waste, your information could be at stake.

The main law pertaining to medical records and PHI is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). Medical record retention is an important aspect of HIPAA compliance, and so is how these records are destroyed. HIPAA isn’t just exclusive to medical records – there’s also PHI on medical waste devices as well, such as specimen cups, IV bags, and blood collection vessels. Because of HIPAA, more and more medical facilities are trying to find more effective and efficient ways to manage protected medical records, and more importantly, how to destroy them and render them unusable once they are no longer needed. For the healthcare industry, paper shredding is essential to HIPAA compliance, as is hard drive and media destruction. Additionally, HIPAA has recently increased enforcement of data collection regulations and protection requirements, specifically to cover electronic data records.

Proper Disposal Done Right

Thankfully, the majority of healthcare facilities are taking destruction of PHI very seriously these days. A lot of organizations trust their medical waste destruction to third parties that specialize in the proper disposal of all types of medical waste, not just paper medical files. If you’re concerned about whether or not the medical facility you work with is fully compliant with HIPAA and destruction laws, you need to ensure that the company you trust to destroy everything can handle whatever waste you may have:

• Sharps
• X-rays
• Paper medical records
• Unused hard drives
• Pharmaceuticals
• Regulated Medical Waste (RMW)
• Pathology
• Trace chemotherapy

If you are located in central or north Alabama, and you’re looking to partner with the best company for your medical waste disposal needs, contact us at SecureMed. We provide multiple medical waste solutions to fit your needs, and we offer a 90 day, double your money back guarantee. We can give you the ultimate peace of mind, knowing that your disposal needs are met, backed by 20 years of commitment to service, safety and excellence. Give us a call today!