HHS Reports On Breaches Of Unsecured Protected Health Information

In its recent Annual Report to Congress on Breaches of Unsecured Protected Health Information, the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services, we see confirmation of certain trends-- bigger breaches and breaches involving theft of electronic media:

Between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010, breaches involving 500 or more individuals also made up less than one percent of reports, yet accounted for more than 99 percent of the more than 5.4 million individuals who were affected by a breach of their protected health information. The largest breaches in 2010, like 2009, occurred as a result of theft. However, in comparison to 2009, in 2010, the number of individuals affected by the loss of electronic media or paper records containing protected health information was greater than the number of individuals affected by unauthorized access or human error.