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The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health examined the Healthcare Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2026 and the Rural Hospital Cybersecurity Enhancement Act as healthcare breaches remain elevated. By August 30, 496 large breaches had been reported to HHS OCR, exposing more than 74.6 million individuals’ protected health information; hacking and other IT incidents accounted for 426 of those incidents. The bills seek to improve healthcare cyber workforce capacity, funding, federal coordination, patient-data protection, and operational resilience, particularly for rural and resource-constrained providers.
Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council Cybersecurity Working Group Executive Director Greg Garcia endorsed the legislation with revisions, urging grants, training, community support, safe-harbor protections, and funding to replace unsecurable end-of-life medical devices. He also called for stronger HHS cybersecurity leadership and formal HSCC participation in HHS and CISA policy, threat-sharing, and incident-response efforts. Garcia opposed legislatively prescribed controls, including specific MFA and encryption requirements, and recommended a risk-based framework rather than the proposed prescriptive HIPAA Security Rule update.
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The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health held a hearing, "Examining Legislative Proposals to Reform Medicare Provider Payment and Bolster Health Care Cybersecurity," considering the Rural Hospital Cybersecurity Enhancement Act and the Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2026. HSCC Executive Director Greg Garcia testified in support of refinements including grants, workforce support, replacement of insecure legacy devices, stronger HHS leadership, and risk-based rather than prescriptive technical requirements.
HSCC published its report, "On the Edge: Cybersecurity Health of America’s Resource-Constrained Health Providers," documenting cybersecurity challenges facing low-resourced health providers.
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The U.S. Senate Health, Education, and Labor (HELP) Committee advanced the bipartisan **Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act**, legislation aimed at revamping cybersecurity practices at the Department of Health and Human Services (**HHS**). The bill would require the HHS Secretary to develop a comprehensive **cybersecurity incident response plan** and submit it to Congress for review, and it would direct HHS to coordinate with **CISA** on oversight of cybersecurity across the public health and healthcare sectors. Additional provisions include developing cybersecurity guidance for **rural healthcare providers** and initiatives to improve **cybersecurity literacy** across the healthcare workforce. Lawmakers cited the **2024 Change Healthcare** incident as a key catalyst, arguing it demonstrated the sector’s exposure to ransomware and other cyber threats and the systemic risk created by concentrated third-party dependencies. The measure would also designate HHS’ *Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response* (**ASPR**) as the **Sector Risk Management Agency** for the Healthcare and Public Health sectors. CyberScoop reported the bill passed committee on a **22–1** vote, with Sen. Rand Paul as the lone dissenter, and sponsors including Sen. Bill Cassidy along with Sens. Maggie Hassan, Mark Warner, and John Cornyn.
Jun 29, 2026
The US Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (**HELP**) Committee advanced the bipartisan **Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act** by a 22–1 vote, proposing new baseline cybersecurity requirements for HIPAA-regulated entities. Reported measures include **multifactor authentication**, **data encryption**, **penetration testing**, and **regular security audits**, alongside changes to breach reporting such as requiring entities to report the number of individuals affected and directing HHS to publish post-breach corrective actions and recognized security practices used by the impacted organization. In parallel, HHS’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (**ONC**) proposed reducing health IT certification criteria—cutting from 60 to 34 and modifying seven others—including criteria tied to **privacy and security controls**. Healthcare industry groups (including **CHIME** and the **American Hospital Association**) warned that removing longstanding certification requirements would shift privacy and security compliance burden from health IT developers (e.g., EHR and patient engagement tool vendors) to healthcare providers, potentially weakening standardized security expectations across certified health IT products.
Jun 29, 2026
A bipartisan group of U.S. senators has reintroduced the Health Care Cybersecurity and Resiliency Act of 2025, which aims to enhance cybersecurity protections in the healthcare sector. The proposed legislation includes provisions for updating HIPAA privacy and security regulations, increasing cyber grant funding, expanding workforce training, and improving breach notification requirements. The bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to coordinate efforts to bolster the sector's cyber resilience, reflecting growing concern over the frequency and impact of healthcare data breaches. In parallel, healthcare organizations are reviewing their password management practices to ensure compliance with existing HIPAA Security Rule requirements. While HIPAA does not mandate specific password policies, it expects organizations to implement reasonable procedures for password creation, changes, and protection, as outlined in 45 CFR 164.308(a)(5)(ii)(D). Guidance from HHS and NIST, particularly NIST SP 800-66r2, provides technical recommendations for authentication management and credential safeguarding, underscoring the importance of robust password management in protecting protected health information (PHI).
Jun 29, 2026