U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, addressed a hearing on the future of health care and improving cybersecurity to protect Americans' health privacy.
Cassidy highlighted the advancements in technology that have improved health care outcomes but noted the need to address cybersecurity threats. He mentioned over 730 cyber breaches last year impacting more than 270 million Americans, including a significant attack on Change Healthcare.
He emphasized the importance of Congress working with health care entities to improve resilience against cyberattacks and discussed legislation he introduced with Senators Maggie Hassan, John Cornyn, and Mark Warner to tackle these challenges.
Cassidy also spoke about leveraging big data and artificial intelligence while preventing patient data misuse. He noted that current laws like HIPAA have not kept pace with new technologies such as wearable devices and apps.
The senator pointed out that many consumers are unaware their data is not protected by HIPAA and expressed concerns about sensitive data being sold by data brokers. He referenced a report he published last Congress proposing ways for patients to control their data usage.
Cassidy concluded by thanking witnesses for sharing ideas on protecting Americans' data security and privacy before recognizing Senator Sanders.
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