As Health Care Groups Expand, Magna5 Warns that Vendor Access is a Hidden Cyber Risk

To ensure operational resilience and protect sensitive data, Magna5 says private practices must implement strict governance over the third-party Electronic Health Record (EHR) vendors, billing platforms, lab systems, and remote support partners accessing their networks.

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 4, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Third-party healthcare service providers were involved in 30% of the breaches analyzed in Verizon's 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report, which is twice the previous year's share. For physician groups, specialty practices, and outpatient providers, that exposure can sit with the vendors that support EHRs, billing, lab interfaces, telehealth, cloud platforms, and remote support. If access is not limited, monitored, and reviewed, a vendorincident can interrupt patient care and revenue-critical operations.

As physician groups acquire practices, add locations, and centralize technology, they also inherit vendor accounts, remote-access tools, legacy applications, and inconsistent security controls. Without a structured review, access created for one practice can become an entry point into the broader organization.

"Many practices think of cybersecurity as protecting the EHR or stopping ransomware, but the actual operating model depends on many connected systems," said William Hale, Senior Director of vCISO Services at Magna5, a national managed IT, cybersecurity, cloud, and compliance services provider. "The most important question is not who the vendor is, but what it can access, how that access is protected, and whether activity is monitored."

Patient Access Depends on the Vendor Ecosystem

When a core vendor or system becomes unavailable, the impact can spread quickly. Staff may be unable to verify insurance, schedule patients, or retrieve medication histories. Prior authorizations, referrals, prescriptions, and lab or imaging orders may stall. Billing delays can also create cash-flow pressure for practices.

The Change Healthcare cyberattack of 2024 demonstrated how dependence on a single external technology provider could disrupt claims, prescriptions, authorizations, and provider payments across the healthcare system. Although most physician groups do not operate at the same scale, they face the same underlying dependency risk when critical workflows rely on outside platforms. "The visible disruption is usually that systems are down," Hale said. "The deeper impact is that patients experience friction at every point of care."

Approval Is Not Governance

Vendors and managed service providers are not inherently risky. Exposure arises when a vendor is breached or when legitimate credentials are overprivileged, shared, left active, or used without adequate monitoring. Risk increases when remote or privileged access remains connected to critical workflows without clear controls. As vendors add integrations, change subcontractors, or rotate employees, providers can lose track of accounts, permissions, and offboarding.

These risks have drawn regulatory attention. The proposed U.S. Department of Health and Human Services update to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Security Rule would apply to covered entities and business associates, reinforcing that cybersecurity responsibilities extend into the vendor ecosystem. The proposal would require more specific documentation, testing and review of security policies and procedures, but the current Security Rule remains in effect while rulemaking continues.

"Trusting a vendor means the organization believes it can deliver the service," Hale said. "Trust isn't the problem. The problem is what happens after trust is granted. Governing access means knowing what the vendor can reach and why. It also means having a plan to shut that access off the moment it's no longer needed. This is a pattern we run into constantly. Access created for convenience during onboarding never gets revisited."

Growth Multiplies Inherited Access

The issue becomes more complex when health care groups acquire practices or consolidate locations. Each site can bring legacy applications, unmanaged devices, shared credentials, old vendor accounts, and inconsistent downtime procedures. Connecting those environments without review can turn a local weakness into exposure across the whole organization.

Cybersecurity should therefore be part of preacquisition due diligence, and integration planning, not a post-close cleanup. At a minimum, providers should know which vendors have access, what systems they can reach, whether multifactor authentication is required, when access was last reviewed, and how it will be disabled during an incident or contract termination. Once these basic are in place, the next steps should be:

• Identify inherited systems and accounts.
• Confirm multifactor authentication and backup practices.
• Standardize privileged access and downtime procedures before locations are fully connected.

Start With Visibility and Continuity

As more healthcare data flows among more vendors and practices, providers should inventory every vendor with access to systems, data, networks, cloud platforms, applications, APIs, or remote support tools. They can then prioritize vendors with privileged access, protected health information, daily operational dependencies, or revenue-critical workflows.

Ongoing security checkpoints include eliminating shared credentials, applying least privilege, using time-bound access where possible, monitoring activity, and reviewing permissions regularly. Vendors should also be included in incident response and downtime planning, so providers know who to contact, what logs or evidence can be produced, and how operations will continue if a vendor is unavailable.

"The first step is to define which workflows must continue if systems are disrupted," Hale said. "The goal is not only to restore technology. It is to keep patients moving safely through care while the organization works through the disruption."

About Magna5

Magna5 is a national managed IT, cybersecurity, cloud and compliance services provider serving small and mid-sized businesses, mid-market organizations, and regulated industries across the United States. The company helps organizations manage critical IT infrastructure, protect networks and data, support users, and strengthen operational resilience through 24/7/365 monitoring, managed security, cloud, backup, disaster recovery, and compliance support. Magna5 works with security- and uptime-conscious sectors including the Defense Industrial Base, healthcare, financial services, legal, manufacturing, education, construction, government, and professional services. For more information, visit www.magna5.com.

Sources:

• Associated Press. (2024, February 29). A large US health care tech company was hacked. It's leading to billing delays and security concerns. AP News. apnews.com/article/521347eb9e8490dad695a7824ed11c41
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2024, December 27). HIPAA Security Rule NPRM. hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/security/hipaa-security-rule-nprm/index.html
• Verizon. (2025). 2025 data breach investigations report. verizon.com/business/resources/reports/dbir/

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SOURCE Magna5