Turns out, it’s not just your personal financial information scammers and thieves are after–they’re also looking for ways to get their hands on your private medical records.

There are “new and expanded threats to the security and privacy of patient information in the U.S. health-care system,” according to the Fourth Annual Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy and Data Security by the Ponemon Institute.

In the past four years, the number of criminal attacks on health providers has doubled with 90% of the hospitals and large regional health networks that participated in the study reporting at least one “data breach.” Thirty-eight percent have had five or more.

A data breach involves the loss or theft of a patient’s information, and includes such things as health records, insurance information, blood type and medications. Your medical file might also include personal financial information if, for instance, you used your credit card to cover your co-pay.

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April 14, 2014 by Gail Buckner, Your Money Matters – FoxBusiness