Majority of Patients Don’t Trust Healthcare Providers to Handle PII

Only 44 percent of surveyed patients reported trusting healthcare providers at private practices to safely handle their payment and personally identifiable information (PII), according to a survey commissioned by Semafone and conducted by Dynata. Rates were even lower for large hospital networks, with only 33 percent of surveyed patients reporting trust in hospital networks to safeguard their information.    

The report emphasized the need for security and privacy assurances for patients in order to improve patient experience while healthcare organizations continue to rapidly undergo digital transformations.

A 2021 Accenture survey found that over 80 percent of healthcare executives said that the pace of digital transformation in their organization is accelerating, and 93 percent of respondents said that they were innovating with a sense of urgency.

Rather than implementing these changes over the course of a decade, more healthcare organizations are compressing digital transformation initiatives into two or three-year processes, Accenture found. Naturally, digital transformation will have an impact on security and privacy, making it crucial for large healthcare organizations in particular to prioritize patient data security.

Semafone found that 66 percent of surveyed patients said they would leave their healthcare provider if their payment information or PII was compromised in a data breach due to the provider’s poor security measures. In addition, 90 percent of surveyed consumers reported believing that healthcare providers should face financial penalties for not having proper safeguards in place.

“Adopting technology solutions that strike a balance, delivering both data security and patient care is critical for providers. When discussing patient protection, payment security must be viewed as an equally important element alongside HIPPA and HITRUST to meet and exceed patients' expectations,” Semafone noted.

The pandemic also catalyzed a shift in how consumers pay medical bills. The survey observed a 28 percent decrease in in-person payments, and a 17 percent decrease in mail payments. Meanwhile, there was a 15 percent increase in paying through online provider systems, a 23 percent increase in paying via mobile app, and an 8 percent increase in paying via phone.

“As billing becomes increasingly digital, having solutions in place that support payment compliance regulations, like the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), in accordance with privacy measures put in place to protect other sensitive data, is imperative to implementing secure frameworks,” the report stated.

The survey results also indicated that transparency is a crucial element of building and maintaining patient trust. Over three quarters of respondents reported feeling confident that healthcare providers do a good job of disclosing how they keep payment information secure, but over half of respondents admitted that they did not know where that data was stored.

“As a patient, understanding where and how personal and payment information is stored is important to protect against potential fraud and breaches, in addition to building trust that providers comply with HIPPA and other compliance regulations,” the analysis continued.

“Given the large number unaware of where their data is stored, providers have an opportunity to increase education and communication with patients to, in turn, improve the experience and overall sentiment toward the providers for the future.”

As healthcare organizations continue to be inundated with data breaches and constant cyber threats, it is critical to not only safeguard patient data, but to maintain trust and improve patient experience through transparent digital transformation processes.