The healthcare information technology sector is hailing healthcare-specific cybersecurity provisions that have made their way into the massive omnibus legislation that Congress passed on Friday.
The $1.1 trillion spending and tax extender bill, which is now on its way to President Barack Obama, includes language that closely follows the recommendations from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and other groups, which have pushed for greater government support for combating cyber threats.
The legislation creates a healthcare industry cybersecurity task force (PDF) to be established within the law’s first 90 days. The task force will study how other industries combat cyber threats as well as the technical and other challenges that make the healthcare industry vulnerable to attacks.
It also calls for a single pipeline of actionable information on cyber threats that could be accessed in real-time and at no cost. Access to that information is currently cost-prohibitive to small and mid-size healthcare organizations, said Samantha Burch, HIMSS’ senior director of congressional affairs.
A parallel focus of the bill calls on HHS to work with the Department of Homeland Security as well as the National Institute of Standards and Technology to create voluntary guidelines and best practices for healthcare organizations to follow that could cost-effectively reduce their risk of cyberattacks. For the full article click here
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