WASHINGTON, May 1, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- The American Pharmacists Association (APhA)
released cybersecurity recommendations today for urgent policy
changes to better secure the pharmacy ecosystem and patient safety.
The recommendations were submitted as Statements for the Record to
the Senate Finance Committee and the House Energy and Commerce
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee for the congressional
hearings taking place today on the Change Healthcare
cyberattack.
These recommendations will also be shared with the White House,
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other
relevant private and public organizations to bring awareness and
drive change on this issue, which has caused chaos and uncertainty
for pharmacies across the country for over a month.
APhA, representing pharmacists and pharmacy teams in all
practice settings, urges policymakers to closely examine the cause,
along with patient and business impact, aftermath, responses,
penalties, and legal consequences related to the system outages and
make the necessary policy changes, including the following
recommendations:
- Map out the pharmacy ecosystem to identify infrastructure
vulnerabilities
- Expand accountability for protection of protected health
information
- Increase the penalties for breaches and noncompliance
- Clarify breach notification requirements for downstream covered
entities
- Require business continuity/backup systems for entities that
transmit, hold, or otherwise manage protected health information
and health care business information
- End vertical integration practices that result in health care
market consolidation
- Incentivize minimum standards for cybersecurity
- Establish a federal cyber-insurance program
- Consider and appropriately fund cybersecurity within emergency
preparedness and response procedures and practices across the
country
APhA stands ready to work with policymakers to discuss lessons
learned from the Change Healthcare cyberattack, and what's needed
to implement these recommendations for prevention, mitigation,
emergency preparedness and response, and penalties to ensure this
does not happen again.
APhA strongly believes that continuity of patient care is
paramount and cannot be jeopardized or compromised again.
The full recommendations can be found here:
https://www.pharmacist.com/Advocacy/Issues/Cybersecurity
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SOURCE American Pharmacists Association