It’s Time To Rethink Data Retention In Healthcare

InnovationIt’s Time To Rethink Data Retention In HealthcareByMark Boxer,Forbes Councils Member.for Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POSTExpertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based)May 20, 2026, 08:30am EDTDr. Mark Boxer is Board Chair of P-n-T Data Corp and is an internationally recognized healthcare technology executive.​ getty​Data breaches have become disturbingly routine—both in scale and in cost. In 2024 alone, Americans received more than 1.35 billion breach notifications.These numbers are troubling on their own, but the stakes are even higher in healthcare, where the exposure of medical data carries deeper privacy implications and far greater financial value. ​Hackers and other bad actors target healthcare for three reasons: the vast number of entry points, the high connectivity among electronic systems where data resides and the depth of information held in such systems.While healthcare providers and facilities need to retain patient data for a specified period, many other players in the healthcare ecosystem either retain data longer than necessary or compile data to sell to other entities.Patients don’t know where their healthcare data is, and they don’t understand how it’s protected or not protected. Instead, they leave it to the industry, and it’s the Wild West out there. To truly protect patients, companies must retain the minimum amount of data in the least number of places possible.Do you know where your data is?Healthcare leaders should think about data retention as a risk-sharing problem, not just a compliance one. Each stakeholder stores data differently because each sits at a different point in the workflow, and each has different obligations for operations, reimbursement and recordkeeping.Providers, for example, keep data to support care continuity, billing, audits and legal defense. Clearinghouses need it to route claims and standardize transactions. Insurers...