The Government of Accountability Office extended its HHS data breach survey to Feb. 14 to give healthcare organizations and hospital systems more time to respond.
The previous deadline was Feb. 4.
"We are pleased that the GAO was receptive to extending the deadline to afford more time for hospitals and health systems to help inform the work of the GAO," John Riggi, American Hospital Association national advisor for cybersecurity and risk, said on the organization's website. "I can’t stress enough, this is an important opportunity for our voices to be heard to help shape the cyber breach investigation and audit process of the HHS Office for Civil Rights and how they respond to and treat victim organizations of cyber breaches — which we ultimately believe should be treated as the victims of crime, not the perpetrators."
The survey, which was released Jan. 31, called for healthcare organizations to review the number of data breaches they've reported to HHS since 2015.
Congress is currently seeking out information on data breach reporting and is working in conjunction with the GAO to obtain that through the survey.
Information from the survey will be used to address any challenges healthcare organizations and businesses associates face in meeting HHS data breach requirements and work to address those issues to improve the reporting process.