What’s Keeping Healthcare Industry Executives and Stakeholders up at Night?
At the recent
HealthCare Executive Group’s 30th Annual meeting, more than 100 executives from payer, provider and technology partner organizations
ranked the top 10 challenges, issues and opportunities they expect to face in 2019.
#1. Data and Analytics:Using technology to inform decisions to improve health care services, drive easier access to healthcare and improve the financial health of our organizations.
#5. The Digital Healthcare System: Developing smart ways to manage portals, improve patient literacy, provide cost transparency and facilitate digital payments.
#8. Operational Effectiveness: Creating systems for implementing lean quality programs, process efficiency, robotics automation and other efficiency improvements.
#10. Cybersecurity: Protecting consumer information privacy and security, including payment card information, protected health information and personally identifiable information.
Subscription-Based Authentication Meets Top Challenges
Services, efficiency and costs are clearly top-of-mind, but perhaps cybersecurity should be higher up on the list. A recent Ponemon Institute/IBM study found that healthcare data breach resolution costs are the most expensive of any industry at an average of
$408 per record, with the average cost of a breach coming in at a whopping
$717,000 and some much higher. With network users — including medical staff, employees, patients and vendors — all logging onto a host of diverse network applications, exploring any new technology requires carefully considering potential impacts on network vulnerability and data theft.
Cybersecurity is clearly critical, and when offered as a subscription-based service it also meets other demands. These benefits are magnified exponentially with cloud services delivered via consolidated, multi-service platforms:
- Reducing IT Complexity: Complex and siloed authentication systems can be difficult for stretched cybersecurity staff to manage and can increase network vulnerability. Subscription-based services minimize complexity by providing only what is needed at a particular time, for particular groups and individuals.
- Controlling Costs: Subscription-based services from the cloud can provide quality, cost-efficient, low IT-footprint services, eliminating the need to spend money on hardware, software and additional IT staff.
- Improving Compliance: A quality subscription-based service will keep up with privacy and data regulations and build appropriate safeguards into the system. This frees up IT staff time, reducing the risk of data theft and non-compliance penalties.
- Creating a Better User Experience: Cloud-based subscription services can open more opportunities for secure, encrypted collaboration and data-sharing, which in turn can improve user engagement, provide more convenient access to healthcare and nurture relationships.
- Increasing Scalability and Flexibility: Subscription-based cloud computing can adapt to changes in your organization, from the number of users to the types of services you need—all in a streamlined manner that can facilitate system-wide adoption and speed innovation.
Reliable identity and authentication solutions are critical in healthcare, as are operational efficiency and a good user experience. New alternatives, such as
subscription-based authentication services, could provide the answers to the healthcare industry concerns of 2019 and beyond.
Learn more about cloud-based authentication systems for healthcare, read the
brochure.
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Jeff Carpenter is a Product Marketing Manager of Cloud Authentication in IAM solutions. In his 10+ years in cybersecurity, Jeff has held positions with a number of top tier cybersecurity and technology companies including Crossmatch and RSA, a Dell Technologies company. He holds both a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) designation.