SearchAmerica announces launch of Data Breach Advance Response for hospitals

SearchAmerica®, a part of Experian® and a leader in financial clearing services for health care, today launched its newest service offering for hospitals, Data Breach Advance Response™. The new service helps hospitals by providing a data breach preparedness plan so they can respond quickly and efficiently should a breach occur.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, there were nearly 120 medical/health care data breaches to date in 2010. More data breaches are expected to occur throughout 2010, with nearly 30 percent of all breaches currently occurring in the medical/health care space.

Government regulations such as HITECH and HIPAA require health care companies to follow strict new privacy and security practices. Hospitals that fail to comply with these regulations face penalties of up to $1.5 million. With Data Breach Advance Response, when hospitals take action to comply with the federal and state notification requirements to its patients in the event of a breach, they also can provide proven identity theft protection to those impacted.

"Hospitals realize that they must ready themselves for a medical data breach, as the chances of its unfortunate occurrence are growing," said Dan Johnson, president of SearchAmerica, a part of Experian. "When a data breach occurs, health care networks need to react quickly to protect their patients and their reputation. Data Breach Advance Response combines SearchAmerica and Experian's industry expertise to provide hospitals and their patients with the tools they need to protect their medical information."

Data Breach Advance Response equips hospitals with the tools needed to manage a data breach, including:

• Proven, industry-leading data breach resolution products and services
• Data breach resolution program in place for immediate implementation
• Preferential pricing for ProtectMyID™, one of the industry's leading identity theft protection products
• Enhanced data breach resolution support features, including call center support and consumer notification services
• Data breach educational support and research

With no installation needed, enrollment in Data Breach Advance Response is completed quickly and easily.