HIPAA Data Breaches Increased Nearly 60% Over Four Years

Health consumer data breaches (involving 500 or more records) increased by 58% from 2017 to 2021. The number of consumer complaints about health privacy violations also increased by 39% during the same period. Both types of events violate the consumer health privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and/or the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

Breaches of protected consumer health information are monitored by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) within the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS generally defines HIPAA breaches as any disclosure that “compromises . . .