Author: Crown Information Managment

Whether you are a small business, a large corporation, or an independent professional, when it comes to business documents, you may be dealing with heaps of papers that need filing, storing, and safekeeping. While renting out a public storage facility may be one of the ways to free up valuable real estate, is it really an effective or safe way to store your confidential, sensitive or important business records? 

It is quite natural for many of us to turn a blind eye to the problems that have not impacted us, yet. You may not hesitate to narrate a story about a neighbor, a friend, or a relative who fell prey to a credit card scam, a robbery, a ransomware attack, or a social media account hack. But, how often do you pay heed to the real issues, or think about how you can prevent them from happening to you? As hard hitting as it sounds, you could be the next victim of any of these scams. Identity theft is a real problem, and in 2018, it affected 14.4 million Americans, and most of these incidents resulted from credit card fraud or Social Security Numbers (SSNs) falling in the wrong hands.

For any parent, back-to-school season is always a hectic time. From shopping for new clothes and school supplies, to completing a plethora of enrollment forms and applications, you may be juggling several tasks to get your child and family tuned in to a new school year. However, as parents of school-age children, be aware that this is also that time of year when your child’s identity is at maximum risk of theft. In the frenzy of filling out dozens of forms for sports teams, school programs or extra-curricular activities, you may unwittingly be handing out your little one’s sensitive information to imposters. 

Whether you are a teacher, administrative staff member, student committee member, or a volunteer, if you are closely involved in the field of education, you are aware of the huge amounts of physical and digital data that are processed daily. From personal and financial, to medical and education assessment, every institution collects, creates and stores a host of sensitive information pertaining to their staff, faculty, students and their parents/ guardians. Given the confidential nature of this data, a number of privacy protection measures are already in place for the education industry in the US. 

No matter how large or small your legal practice, your business is privy to an enormous amount of confidential information, including: 

• Personal details, such as bank accounts, mortgage information, medical records, and other Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
• Agreements related to marriage, death, estates and wills.
• Information on business strategies, mergers and acquisitions, patents, trade secrets, undisclosed IPOs or other sensitive business data.

If you work in a healthcare establishment (hospital, emergency care center, medical office, laboratory, or other associated healthcare business), you are aware of the rampant data breach issues that plague this industry. Hence, it is no surprise that healthcare businesses have to comply with several state and federal laws that aim to protect patient privacy. From collecting and maintaining patient information, to securely destroying physical and electronic records, these regulations define a host of prescriptive measures to safeguard the patient’s medical information. 

At Crown Information Management, we specialize in industry-specific solutions for maintenance and disposal of physical and digital records. Our experienced team is well-versed with the legal requirements involved with collection, preservation and destruction of Protected Health Information (PHI) as defined in:

• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) 
• Other state or federal legislation applicable to healthcare service providers

Preserve, Protect and Safely Destroy Medical Records

Before we discuss safe storage and destruction of medical records, here’s a glimpse into the magnitude of the US healthcare industry’s data breach problems.

• Medical record breaches impact approximately one in every four Americans. Fifteen million patient records were breached during 503 healthcare data breaches in 2018, nearly triple the amount of reported incidents from the previous year, according to the Protenus 2019 Breach Barometer.
• 50% of the breach victims eventually face medical identity theft, which contributes to out-of-pocket expenses of $2,500 on average. 
• A study on the cost of data breach suggests that the healthcare industry has the highest average breach resolution cost of $408 per record. The figure includes cost of discovery and response to the breach as well as expenses involving investigations, audits, legal fees, customer retention, etc. 

Whether it is a system glitch, an orchestrated cyberattack, a malicious insider hack, or human error, for any lapse or negligence in protecting patient information, you may have to pay a hefty price. Essentially, without systematic record maintenance and disposal processes, your hospital, professional practice, or healthcare business may end up spending thousands of dollars in identifying and resolving data breaches. Moreover, you may face regulatory action and risk losing your clients and reputation. 

Partner with a Professional Shredding Company for Safe Disposal of Medical Records

For safe disposal of physical and digital medical records, hire the services of a SOC1 Level 2 Report, NAID AAA and PCI Certified company, such as Crown Information Management. Our certified professionals will help you in systematic destruction of documents and medical files. We also offer shredding services for hard drives, media drives, digital tapes and X-rays.  

Protect patient privacy and remain compliant with record retention and disposal norms applicable to healthcare businesses. Call Crown Information Management at 800-979-9545 or contact us online for a free estimate.