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Another week, another healthcare breach. When will we learn?
AltaMed Health Services just disclosed a massive data breach affecting patients and employees. Names, Social Security numbers, dates of service, payment details, all compromised.
This is their second breach in 18 months.
But here’s what keeps me up at night:
📊 The numbers are staggering:
• Yale New Haven: 5.56 million affected
• Episource: 5.42 million affected
• Texas Conduent: 4 million Medicaid recipients exposed
• McLaren Health: $14 million settlement for two breaches
We’re not talking about isolated incidents anymore. We’re talking about a systemic failure to protect patient data.
Think about this: Your most sensitive health information, your Social Security number, your payment details, floating around in the dark web. Because healthcare organizations still treat cybersecurity as an IT problem, not a patient safety crisis.
The Texas Attorney General is investigating what may be one of the largest U.S. healthcare breaches ever. Four million Medicaid recipients. The most vulnerable populations, once again bearing the brunt of our failures.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Every dollar we don’t invest in cybersecurity today costs us $10 tomorrow in breach response, legal fees, and lost patient trust. McLaren’s $14 million settlement? That’s just the beginning.
Patients can claim up to $5,000 for documented losses. But can you put a price on the anxiety of identity theft? The fear of medical identity fraud? The erosion of trust in the healthcare system?
We need to stop treating cybersecurity as a cost center and start treating it as critical infrastructure. Because when hackers can shut down hospitals and steal millions of patient records, we’re not just failing at IT, we’re failing at healthcare.
The question isn’t if your organization will be breached. It’s when. And whether you’ll be ready.
♻️ Repost if healthcare cybersecurity needs board-level urgency
👉 Follow me, Jonathan Govette, for daily, real-time updates on healthcare technology and business news. LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathangovette/
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Author:
CEO/Co-Founder @ Oatmeal Health | AI Lung Cancer Screening | Almost Became a Doctor | Engineer | Follow to Share What I’ve Learned Along the Way
I help patients get the care they need earlier, preventing late-stage cancer.
That’s been the throughline across three companies and almost 20 years in healthcare. At ReferralMD, we fixed broken referral networks so patients didn’t fall through the cracks. At Oatmeal Health, it’s lung cancer: building the diagnostic and screening infrastructure so the 85% of cases caught too late get caught early instead.
Today as CEO of Oatmeal Health, I lead a team embedding AI into radiology workflows to turn routine lung CT scans into reimbursable cancer risk assessments. We partner with FQHCs to reach underserved communities, and with health systems and payers to make early detection economically sustainable. Think HeartFlow or Cleerly, but for lungs.
Between companies, I advised at Techstars and Plug and Play, mentoring founders building in digital health. That experience shaped how I think about what separates companies that ship from companies that stall: distribution, reimbursement, and clinical trust, not just technology.
I’m a CancerX alumnus, a 3x healthcare founder, and someone who believes the biggest problems in cancer aren’t scientific. They’re operational.
We’re hiring mission-driven builders at Oatmeal Health. If you want to work on something that matters, reach out.
When I’m not working, I’m traveling, mentoring, and keeping up with one very energetic husky. 🐾
Substack – The Oatmeal Bite:
Millions of patients get less care because of who they are, where they live, or how they look. I’m fighting to change that. CEO @OatmealHealth, a startup built for the underserved. The Oatmeal Bite: intel for clinicians, investors, and advocates.
Jonathan Govette
CEO of Oatmeal Health
Substack:
https://oatmealhealthjonathangovette.substack.com/
