University at Buffalo School of Management

22 Buffalo Business Spring 2021 The price of health care privacy violations The health care leaders of tomorrow are willing to violate privacy laws— for a price, according to new School of Management research. Published in JMIR Medical Informatics, the study found that when people feel there's a good chance they could get caught, they're less likely to violate HIPAA—the federal law restrict- ing release of medi- cal information. But when medical treat- ment for their friend or family member is on the line, most will give up another person's infor- mation regardless of the probability of getting caught. "The health care industry has more insider breaches than any other industry," says Lawrence Sanders, professor of management science and systems. "Soon- to-be-graduates are the trusted insiders of tomorrow, and their knowledge could be used to compromise organizational security systems." The researchers developed five scenar- ios to determine if monetary incentives could be used to convince people to illegally obtain and release health care information. A pilot study surveyed 64 medical residents and 32 Executive MBA candidates to test the constructs, while the main study surveyed 523 students with an average age of 21 who are on the cusp of enter- ing the workforce. In the pilot study, just 6% of those surveyed would succumb to monetary incentives to violate medical information privacy laws. But in the main study, 46% said there is an acceptable price for violating HIPAA. When a personal context is involved, the percentages increase dramatically. In the main study, 79% of respondents said they would give a politician's medical records to a media outlet in exchange for $100,000 to pay for an experimental treatment for their mother. "The dark side of the abundance of personal information is that it can be compromised by insiders who know how valuable it is," says Joana Gaia, clinical assistant professor of management science and systems. "The key to reduce privacy violations like these will be to implement organizational procedures, constantly monitor, and develop educational and training programs that encourage HIPAA compliance." Sanders and Gaia collaborated on the study with School of Management alumni Xunyi Wang, MS '16, PhD '20, assistant professor of information systems in the Baylor University Hankamer School of Business; and Chul Woo Yoo, PhD '14, associate professor of information technology and operations management in the Florida Atlantic University College of Business. "Government agencies have invested more than $25 billion in new ventures over the last decade, but nobody has answered the question of whether these agencies fund the most promising applicants— despite how important it is to economic growth and prosperity." — Supradeep Dutta, assistant professor of operations management and strategy, on his research that found the federal government can effectively implement entrepreneurial programs and select the kind of startups that make a big impact. The study was published in Academy of Management Discoveries. Read more at bit.ly/ubmgtgs. Dutta Federal government backs the most promising startups Sanders Gaia

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