Healthcare organizations are on the front line of protecting some of the most sensitive data in the world. Patients’ health information, treatment records, insurance details, and identifiers must be safeguarded at all times.
But as we have seen over the past year, that responsibility does not stop at your firewall. It extends outward into a sprawling ecosystem of third-party vendors, cloud services, managed service providers, and business associates. The current tools most organizations rely on are not enough.
The data is unmistakable. Traditional Third-party risk management (TPRM) is not reducing real risk.
The Statistics Tell a Stark Story
In 2025, third-party risk was not an abstract concern. It was a central driver of breach activity in healthcare.
The American Hospital Association reported that more than 80% of stolen protected health information records in 2025 were traced to breaches at third parties, software services, business associates, and non-hospital providers rather than directly from hospital systems.
That number represents real patients. Real operational disruption. Real reputational impact. That’s why third-party risk is no longer peripheral. It is foundational.
Why Traditional TPRM Is Not Working
Despite significant investment in third-party risk platforms, many healthcare organizations describe their TPRM efforts as questionnaire-heavy but insight-light, score-driven but context blind, built on unrealistic network sharing assumptions, and reactive rather than resilient.
In many environments, TPRM has become work generation rather than risk reduction. Organizations pay for the platform. Then they pay in internal or MSSP effort to operate it. Yet measurable exposure often remains unchanged.
That is not sustainable in healthcare, where every dollar diverted from patient care must produce measurable security value.
The Fortified Approach Built for Healthcare Reality
At Fortified Health Security, we stepped back and asked a different question: What if TPRM worked the way healthcare actually operates?
Instead of layering another platform into the environment, we embed expert-led risk evaluation directly into procurement and renewal workflows. We scope assessments based on how a vendor is actually used, what data is exchanged, and what operational or clinical dependency exists.
Rather than long static questionnaires, we focus only on what materially impacts your risk profile.
Every engagement delivers clear, defensible, decision-ready outputs:
- Resiliency Recommendations with actionable mitigation steps
- Contractual Considerations aligned to real usage
- A Residual Risk Score reflecting remaining exposure
- Vendor guidance that supports decisions without becoming the strategy
Fortified’s TPRM with VendorIQ: A New Paradigm
Fortified’s TPRM with VendorIQ replaces activity with outcomes. We embed risk management into healthcare workflows, scope based on real usage, and focus on organizational resiliency rather than vendor correction.
Third-party risk management should not create more work. It should reduce risk.
In healthcare, that difference directly impacts patient safety, operational continuity, and trust. The model must change. We built one that does.
Contact us to learn more about TPRM with VendorIQ and how it can help your healthcare organization reduce risk in a real way.
