Stumbled across this informative nugget and thought I would pass it along: the 2024 Healthcare Data Breach Report from The HIPAA Journal.
The 2024 Healthcare Data Breach Report is published here by Steve Adler and it provides some encouraging and some alarming numbers. Such as:
Number of Healthcare Data Breaches
As of January 28, 2025, the OCR data breach portal shows 725 data breaches of 500 or more records in 2024, the third consecutive year that more than 700 large data breaches have been reported to OCR. That total could well change, as there is usually a delay in adding data breaches to the breach portal, as OCR conducts checks of all breach reports before adding them to the breach portal. The current figures indicate a slight (2.95%) year-over-year reduction in healthcare data breaches, 22 fewer data breaches than 2023’s record-breaking number of data breaches.
Individuals Affected by Healthcare Data Breaches
While the number of reported data breaches is leveling off, the number of records exposed, stolen, or impermissibly disclosed has increased at an alarming rate since 2022. In 2021, 60 million healthcare records were breached, and 57 million in 2022, but the following year saw a 192% increase to 168 million breached records, followed by a 63.5% increase to 275 million records in 2024. “That escalated quickly!”
The report also adds: “Last year, the records of 82% of the population of the United States were exposed, stolen, or impermissibly disclosed.” However, I think that number is misleading – while there were 275 million records impacted last year, some of those could involve repeated individuals over multiple data breaches. Chances are that many of us have not only had our healthcare records breached once, but multiple times. Others may have managed to avoid being compromised at all (at least last year). Maybe those people should play the lottery? 😉
The report also notes: “If you discount the massive data breach at Change Healthcare, around 85 million healthcare records were breached in 2024. Historically, mega data breaches such as the one at Change Healthcare are rare – the last one was reported by Anthem Inc. in 2025 involving 78.8 million records – but there are signs that they may start occurring much more frequently.” Sigh.
The 2024 Healthcare Data Breach Report goes on to list the biggest data breaches of 2024 in healthcare and many more stats and information regarding healthcare breaches last year. Check it out here!
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So, what do you think? Are you encouraged or alarmed by these numbers? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.
Image created using GPT-4o’s Image Creator Powered by DALL-E, using the term “robot doctor looking at a desktop computer that provides notice of a data breach”.
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