Cyber Threats to Medical Billing Services; How to Identify and Protect?

With the advancement in technology, we now prefer the digital cloud-based medium for our technical operations. However, there is one thing that is still unbeaten: cyber security issues. Hackers and data thieves have also modernized their hacking techniques. So, it’s a bare truth that the healthcare sector is still not immune to cyber threats. Today, medical billing services depend more on EHRs and automated billing systems. Thus, the cyberattack risk has also been enhanced.

In this blog, we will explore what kind of cyber risks medical billing services have. Also, we will see how healthcare IT has planned to identify and mitigate the risks.

Common Types of Cyber Threats to Medical Billing Services

There are four main types of cybersecurity risks for medical billing outsourcing companies. However, healthcare IT has paved the way to either identify them in time or avoid them with precaution. The four types of cybersecurity risks are given as follows:

1. Phishing Attacks
2. Ransomware Attacks
3. Insider Threats
4. Data Breaches

Let’s go through each one in depth one by one!

Phishing Attacks

Medical billing services handle sensitive patient information. Therefore, they have to maintain the strict security of the billing systems and cloud data records. However, phishing attacks still managed to reach sensitive patient information.

A phishing attack is a favorite mode for cybercriminals, where they make an email or website that seems legitimate. However, it is their trick for getting sensitive data from healthcare billing systems. This information might be anything, such as the patient’s credentials, login information, etc.

How to Find a Phishing Attack

Every healthcare billing service provider must be aware of specific sorts of emails or messages. These emails may alarm recipients that their sensitive information could be leaked by a phishing attack. The email or message may include the following elements:

• Solicits private information, such as credit card numbers, passwords, or Social Security numbers.
• Carries an impression of urgency, for example, by threatening repercussions if the receiver doesn’t reply right away.
• Use a generic greeting rather than addressing the person by name, or make spelling or grammatical mistakes.
• Contains an untrustworthy link or attachment.
• Has an unknown sender address or originates from an unknown sender.

How to Prevent Phishing Attacks

Healthcare professionals can surely be victims if they do not act on time. Here are some precautionary measures to avoid this sort of cybersecurity issue:

• Avoid any emails or texts requesting private information. It is a rare case that a legitimate organization asks for sensitive information by email or message.
• Before replying to an email or message, be sure you can trust the source. Thereby, you must verify if the sender’s email address is the legitimate email address of the company they claim to represent.
• Avoid downloading dubious files or clicking on dodgy URLs. Before clicking on any links, hover your cursor over them to reveal the URL. Only download attachments from reputable websites.
• Also, keep software updated to prevent known vulnerabilities from being exploited.
• Use two-factor authentication to strengthen account security.

Ransomware Attacks

As the term reveals, there is some sort of ransom that a hacker may demand. The cybercriminal generates malware that encrypts the system’s data. When healthcare professionals try to access data, they can’t do so until they pay a ransom.

For medical billing services, such inaccessibility can have very dangerous consequences. A delay in sorting out the system’s issue can put the patient’s health at risk. Moreover, the practice may lead to the loss of vital data, leading to financial losses.

How to Protect Against Ransomware?

We need both technical and non-technical measures to devise a multi-layered approach for complete protection. Anyhow, some key elements for safeguarding the billing systems are given as follows:

• Update software with the most recent security patches and updates.
• Install and frequently update anti-virus and anti-malware software to guard against suspected threats.
• For all accounts, use secure and distinctive passwords. Also, employ a password manager to store and manage passwords.
• Put access restrictions in place to only allow authorized users access to sensitive data and systems.
• Inform staff members how to spot and evade ransomware threats.

Backup and Recovery Procedures

Ransomware attacks are unstoppable, even with strong preventive measures. Therefore, it is a wise choice to have backup and recovery procedures implemented in your practice. It will eventually help you to lessen the impact of ransomware attacking your medical billing.

Even with strong preventative measures in place, it is still possible for ransomware attacks to occur. In such cases, having backup and recovery procedures in place can be crucial in minimizing the impact of the attack. Here are some key steps to consider when developing backup and recovery procedures:

• Regularly back up your data.
• Test backup functionality.
• Develop a recovery plan (in case of ransomware attacks).
• Consider cyber insurance.

Insider Threats

This raises data security issues when an employee inside the billing services is involved in the act. They mistakenly or maliciously disclose it to unauthorized parties in some cases. While some may also do this purposefully to get some benefits by stealing this data.

How to Mitigate the Risk

Medical billing outsourcing companies have two ways to control it.

Employee training and screening

First of all, we must not hire any employee without checking and confirming their background. Also, employees must get the proper training and screening. They all must be familiar with the penalties for policy violations.

Access controls and monitoring

Further, we can secure medical billing services with the implementation of access control. This means we must restrict data access to limited individuals. In addition to this, we must monitor employee activity at every stage. Moreover, frequent audits, both internal and external, can also be a great help.

Data Breaches

It is another sort of cyber security risk when unauthorized individuals gain access to sensitive data by any means.

Data Breach Response Strategy

A data breach response strategy should contain the following crucial steps:

• Containment: The initial response to a data breach is to limit the harm and stop any more unauthorized access to the compromised systems or data.
• Investigation: After the breach has been stopped, you need to find out what caused it and how much harm was done by conducting an investigation.
• Notification: It can be important to alert impacted parties or regulatory agencies if sensitive data has been compromised.
• Remediation: It is the last stage of a data breach response and involves putting safety precautions in place to prevent such incidents from happening again.

Conclusion

Cyber threats have damaged medical billing services a lot. However, healthcare IT has advanced and asks for the updating of billing and record-keeping systems as well. Otherwise, we will not be able to avoid the data damage. The federal government in the USA now especially emphasizes HIPAA compliance in healthcare. And for not following the standard protocols, the medical billing services now face penalties and fines.