Availity’s Cyber Award Signals a Shift to Rapid Recovery in Healthcare

JACKSONVILLE, FL – January 13, 2026 – In an industry still reeling from the widespread disruption of recent cyberattacks, a new framework focused on rapid operational restoration rather than just defense is gaining major recognition. Availity, the nation’s largest real-time health information network, has earned the 2025 Modern Healthcare Best in Business Award in Cybersecurity for its “Rapid Recovery” framework. The award highlights a critical shift in thinking: in an era where breaches are inevitable, the new benchmark for excellence is how quickly a healthcare system can get back on its feet.

The accolade, presented by a leading industry publication, recognizes Availity's innovative approach to ensuring the continuity of critical healthcare operations following a large-scale catastrophic event. The framework promises to restore core services in under five days, a timeline that stands in stark contrast to the weeks or even months of paralysis that have crippled organizations in the past.

A New Benchmark in a High-Stakes Environment

The healthcare sector remains a prime target for cybercriminals, a reality underscored by the devastating Change Healthcare attack in 2024. That single incident disrupted 15 billion transactions, with 94% of hospitals reporting a direct financial impact and many taking months to resume normal operations. This event served as a brutal wake-up call, exposing a systemic vulnerability not just to intrusion, but to prolonged recovery.

Industry data paints a grim picture. According to recent cybersecurity reports, 92% of U.S. healthcare organizations experienced at least one cyberattack in the past year. The financial toll is staggering, with healthcare breaches being the costliest of any industry, averaging $9.77 million in 2024. But the true cost is measured in patient outcomes. A Sophos survey revealed that nearly 40% of healthcare organizations took over a month to recover from a ransomware attack, with only 22% recovering in less than a week. During these extended downtimes, patient care is directly impacted, leading to delayed procedures, diverted emergency services, and, in the most tragic cases, poorer health outcomes.

It is within this context that Availity’s five-day recovery objective (RTO) appears so revolutionary. The company aims to slash the average recovery time from a standard of 28 days to less than a week, moving from a reactive crisis management model to a proactive, pre-planned restoration strategy.

Beyond the Firewall: How Rapid Recovery Works

Unlike traditional cybersecurity strategies that focus almost exclusively on perimeter defense—building higher and stronger walls to keep intruders out—Rapid Recovery operates on the assumption that a breach is not a matter of if, but when. The framework pairs prevention with a robust and tested plan for immediate restoration.

“Cyber resilience isn’t optional in healthcare—it’s foundational,” said Mike Green, Availity’s Chief Information Security Officer, in the company's announcement. “Rapid Recovery gives our customers confidence that even in a crisis, patient care and business operations won’t be compromised.”

Several key components make this possible:

• Air-Gapped Recovery Environment: At the core of the framework is a completely isolated, or “air-gapped,” backup environment. This means the recovery systems are physically and logically disconnected from the main network, creating a secure vault that cannot be contaminated if the primary systems are compromised. This prevents the common scenario where attackers encrypt both primary data and its connected backups.

• Comprehensive Backups and Testing: The framework goes beyond simple data backups. It includes uncompiled code, system configurations, and all the necessary components to rebuild the operational environment from scratch. More importantly, Availity reports conducting rigorous tests, including a failover drill that successfully brought a recovery environment online in just 18 hours.

• Third-Party Attestation: To build trust across its vast network, Availity has its recovery environment and capabilities independently validated by trusted information security experts like Mandiant. This third-party certification provides an objective assurance to payers and providers that it is safe to reconnect to Availity’s network after an incident, preventing the fractured and delayed reconnection process that plagued the industry after previous large-scale attacks.

The Economic and Clinical Imperative for Resilience

For healthcare organizations, the financial and clinical arguments for this level of resilience are overwhelming. An extended system outage can threaten the solvency of provider networks, particularly smaller practices that operate on thin margins and cannot withstand weeks without processing claims and payments.

By drastically reducing downtime, the Rapid Recovery model directly addresses this existential threat. The framework is designed to keep critical healthcare transactions—eligibility checks, claims submissions, payment processing—moving. This ensures that providers get paid, administrative workflows continue, and the financial side of healthcare does not grind to a halt.

“Availity understands that healthcare cannot afford downtime,” said Russ Thomas, Availity CEO. “Our Rapid Recovery model, which is unique to the healthcare sector, is designed to provide an unparalleled safety net for our clients, ensuring they can continue to deliver critical care and services even in the face of catastrophic events.”

This speed is not just a business advantage; it is a clinical necessity. When administrative and financial systems fail, the impact cascades directly to patient care. Appointments are canceled, prescriptions cannot be verified, and critical treatments are postponed. By ensuring the rapid restoration of the informational backbone that supports clinical decisions, a resilient framework helps protect the continuity and quality of patient care.

Industry-Wide Implications and the Path Forward

The recognition from Modern Healthcare, whose president Dan Peres noted that honorees are “redefining what's possible in care delivery and operations,” validates Availity’s approach as a significant step forward. Given Availity’s immense footprint—connecting 95% of payers and 3.4 million providers—the stability of its network is a matter of national healthcare infrastructure.

The development of the Rapid Recovery framework represents a maturation of the healthcare industry's approach to cybersecurity. It acknowledges a harsh reality and pivots from a strategy of perfect prevention to one of determined resilience. For years, cybersecurity investment has been a difficult sell, but the tangible and devastating impacts of recent attacks have made it a top-tier executive priority.

As the industry continues to grapple with sophisticated threats, the focus is shifting from a simple checklist of security tools to a holistic strategy that encompasses prevention, detection, and, crucially, rapid, tested recovery. Availity’s award-winning model provides a powerful case study in this new paradigm, setting a standard that other critical infrastructure providers in healthcare will likely be expected to follow.