How are Healthcare Leaders Staying Cyber Resilient?

Cybersecurity remains a top priority for healthcare leaders as they navigate evolving threats with proactive strategies. By strengthening internal risk assessments and collaborating with vendors, organizations are building a more resilient foundation for their operations.

At the same time, leaders are addressing vendor risks and implementing robust backup capabilities to protect critical workflows.

To better understand how healthcare leaders are tackling these challenges, FinThrive, in collaboration with HIMSS Market Insights, surveyed top executives to uncover key strategies and priorities in cybersecurity preparedness.

This infographic provides a detailed look into the current state of healthcare cyber resilience and highlights:

• Proactive measures, with 82% of leaders conducting internal risk assessments and 70% collaborating on joint vendor evaluations

• Strategies to mitigate vendor-related risks, including cybersecurity certifications and breach-related contract clauses

• Insights into workflows, with 74% of leaders prioritizing standby capabilities for patient billing and collections

Click the image to view the full-sized infographic.

How are Healthcare Leaders Staying Cyber Resilient? We Asked Them.

FinThrive, in partnership with HIMSS Market Insights, surveyed healthcare leaders at the end of 2024 to understand their perspective on cyber-preparedness and resilience efforts within their organization.

Topics included:

• Reactions to recent cyberattacks and future downtime plans
• Implementation of standby or backup capabilities
• Third-party vendor risk mitigation tactics
• Impacts to the effectiveness of cyber resilience approaches

Respondents breakdown:

• C-Suite level (62%)
• Directly involved in cybersecurity planning and strategy (78%)
• Worked at an organization with 2,500+ employees (62%)
• Worked at an organization with an annual NPR of $501M+ (68%)

Key Takeaway #1

Top priority: Internal risk assessments

82% of healthcare leaders surveyed say assessing risks within critical workflows is the most important change their organizations have recently enacted.

Vendor collaboration is crucial:

• 60% of respondents are mandating vendors share real-time threat intelligence and conduct proactive monitoring

• 70% of respondents are collaborating with vendors for joint risk assessments

Key Takeaway #2

Decreasing vendor risk puts third-party solutions in the spotlight

Healthcare leaders are concerned not only with the risks within their own organizations, but also potential threats that can stem from vendor relationships.

Top five key risk mitigation strategies

• Strengthening onboarding processes through detailed cybersecurity assessments (82%)

• Prioritizing vendors with advanced cybersecurity certifications (82%)

• Establishing breach-related clauses in contracts (72%)

• Re-vetting existing vendors in contract renewals (64%)

• Increasing cyber-related audits in procurement (62%)

Cybersecurity Certifications to Know: 

• HIPAA compliant

• HITRUST CSF Certified

• Direct Trust

• SOC 2

Key Takeaway #3

Billing and Collections is the top workflow for implementing standby or backup capabilities

Leaders highlighted an average of three areas where they’re implementing standby or backup capabilities, with certain workflows standing out as the most frequent choices:

• Patient Billing and Collections (74%)

• Claims Management (72%)

• Eligibility Verification (54%)

• Patient Self-Scheduling and Appointment Reminders (42%)

Single-facility worksites (19%) are nearly 2x more likely to not implement any standby or backup capabilities, compared to other worksites (10% overall)

How is your organization approaching cyber resilience?

If you’re just starting out, learn why prevention alone isn’t enough and why resilience matters.

Already on a path? Ensure you’ve partnered with the right RCM vendor. Use our checklist to find the best fit for your cyber resilience needs.