2016 Omnibus spending package signed into law by President Obama

ANN ARBOR, MI, December 18, 2015 – The 2016 Omnibus spending package, signed into law by President Obama, includes language seeking to improve information sharing about and protection against cyber threats. CHIME Board of Trustees Chair Charles E. Christian, CHCIO, LCHIME, FCHIME, issued the following statement:

The Cybersecurity Act of 2015, particularly Section 405, recognizes that the healthcare industry faces unique challenges in safeguarding patient information. We believe that the act will not only improve information sharing among key stakeholders, but also help healthcare providers understand and adopt best practices.

A key provision in the law requires the Department of Health and Human Services to convene a task force that will, among other things, analyze how other industries are addressing cybersecurity. The task force will also be charged with assessing barriers that our organizations face in protecting against cyberattacks. The act includes $31.5 million to enable the National Institutes of Standards and Technology to establish the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. And, the law will lead to the creation of industry-led guidelines and best practices. Importantly, it extends liability protections to organizations that voluntary engage in information sharing.

Healthcare chief information officers and chief information and security officers are tasked with the daunting job of protecting patient information in a highly digital environment. Threats are evolving and there’s no respite on the horizon. The Cybersecurity Act of 2015 will allow CIOs and CISOs to share threat indicators and suspected vulnerabilities through a secure national information-sharing infrastructure with the necessary liability protections in place and will not risk patient trust. As an important piece of the nation’s critical infrastructure, it is vital that healthcare organizations have the tools and information they need to identify and more effectively defend against growing cyber threats.

About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,700 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, please visit chimecentral.org.

Contact
Matthew Weinstock
Director of Communications and Public Relations, CHIME
734.249.8917
[email protected]