week five replies

1_Brenda Gonzalez

Nov 14, 2025 12:50 AM

(Edited by Brenda Gonzalez on Nov 14, 2025 2:27 AM)

Week 5 Discussion: Breach in Medical Records

           In February 2024, Change Healthcare, a large U.S. healthcare technology provider, was hit by a ransomware attack that affected the processing of claims, routing of prescriptions, and prior authorization services of hundreds of thousands of healthcare providers (Kanter, Rekowski, & Kannarkat, 2024). The incident took place because of compromised credentials and a lack of multifactor authentication to block the encryption and exfiltration of large amounts of safeguarded health information (PHI). Change Healthcare is alleged to have paid back $22 million to restore its systems. Regulatory inquiries were also launched in order to evaluate possible HIPAA breaches. In order to lessen the consequences on patients, the company sent messages and collaborated with lower-level providers to get the processes going again and introduced more robust technical controls against future attacks (Kanter et al., 2024; Pool, 2024). This event demonstrates that a breach in one vendor can have an insidious impact on numerous healthcare organizations, which is why the significance of cybersecurity in the healthcare supply chain cannot be overestimated.

           I have not experienced the effects of a breach where my personal health information was revealed. Nevertheless, when one considers the measures that should have been taken in case it had happened, one can see that there is still a threat of identity theft or fraud. In this case, I would have to watch my credit reports, create new passwords to access financial and other health-related accounts, subscribe to identity-theft protection services, and address insurers and other healthcare providers to amend any mistakes (Seh, Kashif, & Hussain, 2020). Such protective mechanisms would be critical in the minimization of both financial and emotional stress.

           I have not been breached personally, but the implications of this to daily life are enormous. Any violation of confidential medical information would compromise my economic welfare, career and healthcare accessibility, as well as place inaccuracies in medical records into consideration, potentially influencing the decision related to medical treatment (Pool, 2024). In addition, fear and anxiety of privacy over personal information could reduce the confidence in the health personnel and systems. The breach of such breach would be monitored, and the accounts would be checked regularly, preventing factors of identity theft, and feedback to the institutions would also happen in time to ensure that the personal information is secure (Kanter et al., 2024; Seh et al., 2020). All in all, the effects would not just be limited to technical and financial problems, but also to personal well-being and day-to-day lives.

References

Kanter, G. P., Rekowski, J. R., & Kannarkat, J. T. (2024). Lessons from the Change Healthcare ransomware attack. JAMA Health Forum, 5(9), e242764. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamahealthforum.2024.276764

Pool, J. (2024). A systematic analysis of failures in protecting personal health data: A scoping review. International Journal of Information Management, 102719. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2023.102719

Seh, A. H., Kashif, M., & Hussain, A. (2020). Healthcare data breaches: Insights and implications. Health Policy and Technology, 9(2), 234–246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2020.02.012

reply to this #1

Adrienne Angton

Nov 16, 2025 7:32 PM

NEW

That’s a really insightful overview of the Change Healthcare breach. It’s wild to think how one security slip-up can cause such a massive ripple effect across the healthcare system. I agree that the potential for identity theft and fraud, is a huge concern. I hadn’t really considered the emotional toll it could take, like the anxiety of constantly monitoring your accounts. It’s interesting that you mentioned inaccuracies in medical records. How do you think healthcare providers should handle correcting misinformation after a breach? The Change Healthcare breach definitely highlights the importance of vendor security, similar to how the Scripps Health breach (my selected entity to discuss) showed vulnerabilities in internal systems. It seems like healthcare organizations need to be vigilant on all fronts.

reply to ths #2

Michelle Parker

Nov 13, 2025 10:51 PM

On February 12, 2024, one of the biggest security breaches in health care to date happened. About 190 million people were affected by this ransomware attack. The ransomware affiliate BlackCat/ALPHV breached the Change Healthcare system and encrypted files. Although the affiliate turned all stolen goods over to the RansomHub group and claims to not have been paid, they pulled and exit scam after being paid out 22 million dollars. Patients’ social security information, passport information, addresses, phone numbers, and emails were all compromised during this breach. This caused a major disruption for many health care companies that relied on Change Healthcare. The ransomware affiliate used a Centrix portal that did not have a two-step authenticator for extra protection. Patients were no longer able to access their medication through Change Healthcare. They were forced to pay for medications out of pocket due to the prolonged outage of the company. This breach is still under investigation to date. There have been no details of what actual penalties will be applied, however, it has been assured that once the investigation comes to a close, penalties will definitely be applied.

Unfortunately, I have experienced a breach of my bank card. It was extremely inconvenient because I had to freeze my account and get a new card sent out. I was unable to access my funds to even transfer them into a different account. I had to contact my billing companies and explain why I would be paying my bills a little late. This caused me a lot of stress and took a lot of time out of my day trying to get things sorted out. Moving forward I have enabled a two-step authentication for all of my accounts, and I also use face ID to access my accounts to ensure that no one else can get in. I have also taken the precaution of creating lengthy and unique passwords that are not easy to figure out for extra security.

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