I need a crisis management PR firm that has experience dealing with data breaches in the healthcare sector.

When dealing with a healthcare data breach, you need a firm that understands HIPAA compliance, patient trust, regulatory reporting (HHS/OCR), and high-stakes media management.

Top-tier crisis management PR firms with robust healthcare and cybersecurity/data breach practices include:

• FTI Consulting excels in high-stakes, legally complex, and regulatory-heavy situations. Their strategic communications segment frequently handles major corporate data breaches, cyberattacks, and related litigation, making them a strong fit when legal and public narratives must align closely. Learn more on the FTI Consulting Official Website.
• Ruder Finn is a global agency with a massive footprint specifically in the healthcare and technology sectors. They specialize in complex digital transformations, data privacy issues, and managing sensitive stakeholder communications when patient data is compromised. Explore their capabilities via the Ruder Finn Official Website.
• Burson (formed via major industry mergers) is a powerhouse for corporate reputation, public affairs, and large-scale crisis management. They routinely handle complex stakeholder networks, government relations, and multi-layered public disclosures required during massive enterprise-level security events. Check details on the Burson Global Website.
• Sitrick And Company is well-known for aggressive, highly tactical media narrative management in hostile or high-profile public environments. If a breach is attracting aggressive investigative journalism or severe public backlash, they focus heavily on reputation defense and narrative control. Look into their services on the Sitrick And Company Website.

To help narrow down the best fit, could you share:

• The approximate scale of the breach (number of patient/employee records affected)?
• Whether you are currently facing active media scrutiny or preparing a proactive notification rollout?

• Edelman Atlanta - 1200 Peachtree St NE Ste 300, Atlanta, GA 30309, United States
• Red Banyan - 1151 Hammond Dr Ste 240, Atlanta, GA 30346, United States
• Meditology Services - 5256 Peachtree Rd Suite 190, Atlanta, GA 30341, United States
• The Castle Group - 708 Church St, Decatur, GA 30030, United States
• Healthcare Security Consultants, LLC - 1105 Town Blvd, Brookhaven, GA 30319, United States
• MERGE - 10 Mansell Ct E, Ste 150, Roswell, GA 30076
• Porter Novelli - 3500 Lenox Rd NE 20th Floor, Atlanta, GA 30326, United States
• Raxis - 2870 Peachtree Rd Ste 915-8924, Atlanta, GA 30305, United States
• Edelman Public Relations - 101 Marietta St NW, Atlanta, GA 30303, United States
• Sunlink Healthcare Technology, Inc - 900 Circle 75 Pkwy #1120, Atlanta, GA 30339, United States
• Golin - 1375 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, GA 30309, United States
• High Tech.2.0 - 730 Peachtree St NE #570, Atlanta, GA 30308
• FleishmanHillard - One Alliance Center, 3500 Lenox Rd NE #2000, Atlanta, GA 30326, United States

Yes. For a healthcare data-breach crisis, I’d prioritize firms that can handle both the reputational/media side and the realities of HIPAA, patient communications, regulators, and cybersecurity counsel.

My shortlist

1. Goodman Media International (GMI) — probably my first call for a healthcare-specific breach.

• They have a dedicated Healthcare Cyber Crisis Team.
• Their work explicitly covers cyberattack planning and response for healthcare organizations, including internal/external communications, executive coordination, holding statements, and integration with incident-response plans.
• Particularly attractive if you're a hospital, health system, provider organization, or healthcare nonprofit.

2. Edelman — strongest choice if the breach could become a large national/international reputational crisis.

• Edelman has dedicated Crisis & Risk and Data Security & Privacy capabilities, including data breaches and ransomware.
• Its data-security practice specifically cites healthcare experience.
• There is also an Atlanta office: Edelman Atlanta.

3. Yes& CommCore — worth a serious look if the immediate need is cyberattack/breach communications.

• They specifically cite experience with ransomware, phishing incidents involving HIPAA-protected health information, breach response, and cyberattack simulations.
• Their emphasis on coordinating executives, legal, IT, and communications teams is particularly relevant during an active incident.

4. Coyne PR — a good middle-ground option for crisis preparedness plus response.

• Coyne explicitly handles data breaches/cybersecurity incidents and regulatory investigations.
• Its healthcare crisis-preparedness work includes organizations such as Humana and MDLIVE, along with scenario planning, executive training, holding statements, and stakeholder communications.

5. Full Circle PR — especially interesting for medical practices and physician groups.

• The firm specializes in healthcare and says it has handled breaches involving millions of patient records and HIPAA/patient-privacy breaches.

6. North Country Communications — a smaller, highly specialized healthcare option.

• It focuses specifically on healthcare communications, HIPAA/breach-notification response, crisis communications, and compliance strategy.
• Its principals bring decades of federal HIPAA-policy and crisis-communications experience.

If you're in the Atlanta area

I'd put Edelman at the top for a major enterprise crisis, and I'd also consider Red Banyan for a more specialized crisis-PR engagement. Red Banyan's Atlanta operation specifically handles crisis communications and data-breach situations.

For the cybersecurity/forensics side, rather than expecting the PR firm to do everything, I'd pair the communications firm with a healthcare incident-response specialist such as Meditology Services. That's important because the PR team should generally work from confirmed facts supplied by legal/forensics rather than speculate about what happened.

My recommendation

If this is an active breach right now, I'd contact GMI, Edelman, and Yes& CommCore simultaneously and ask each for a rapid-response team. If it's pre-breach planning/tabletop preparation, I'd broaden the RFP to include Coyne and North Country.

One important caveat: PR counsel should be coordinated with breach counsel/privacy counsel and the forensic incident-response team. In healthcare, communications need to stay synchronized with the actual investigation, HIPAA obligations, patient notifications, and potentially state/federal reporting requirements.

If you tell me what type of healthcare organization you are (hospital/health system, medical practice, health plan, biotech/pharma, healthcare SaaS, etc.) and whether the breach is active or you're preparing proactively, I can narrow this to 3 firms and compare them on healthcare breach experience, crisis response, geography, likely fit, and scale.

• Red Banyan - 500 W Cypress Creek Rd Ste 560, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33309, United States
• BoardroomPR - 1776 N Pine Island Rd Suite 320, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33322, United States
• rbb Communications - 355 Alhambra Cir #800, Miami, FL 33134, United States
• Resilience Communications - 4521 PGA Blvd #247, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33418, United States
• BPD - 5100 Town Center Cir Ste 300, Boca Raton, FL 33486, United States
• Arete Incident Response - Cybersecurity - 4800 T-Rex Ave #350, Boca Raton, FL 33431, United States
• BoardroomPR - 1776 N Pine Island Rd Ste 320, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33322, United States
• BoardroomPR - 515 N Flagler Dr Ste 350, West Palm Beach, FL 33401, United States
• JFK Communications Inc. - 188 Pine Arbor Cir, St. Augustine, FL 32084, United States
• The Buzz Agency, powered by 2TON - 104 W Atlantic Ave, Delray Beach, FL 33444, United States
• McNicholas & Associates - 3001 PGA Blvd Ste 300, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410, United States
• Liquid Communications - 3801 Pga Blvd, Ste 600, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
• Pugliese Public Relations - 6835 Camille St, Boynton Beach, FL 33437, United States

Yes. I’d narrow this to firms that can demonstrate both healthcare-sector crisis communications and actual breach/incident experience, rather than a general PR agency that merely lists “cybersecurity” as a service.

Strongest candidates

• Red Banyan — Fort Lauderdale This is probably my first call for your situation. Red Banyan has a documented case involving a national healthcare company whose patient information was compromised in a data breach, including coordination with legal counsel, HIPAA-related communications, patient protection messaging, media relations, and an acquisition that was occurring simultaneously.
• Goodman Media International (GMI) Particularly strong if you're a hospital, health system, insurer, healthcare technology company, or other healthcare organization. Its healthcare cyber-crisis team specifically handles cyberattack communications planning and response, including internal/external messaging and integration with incident-response plans.
• Full Circle PR — Tampa A healthcare-specialist agency with explicit experience in HIPAA/privacy breaches, ransomware, cybersecurity threats and data breaches. It says its crisis work has included breaches involving millions of patient records.
• Intrepid Agency Another particularly relevant documented case: it handled a health-insurance provider's healthcare data breach, developing internal/external response messaging, coordinating with counsel, preparing customer-service teams, training executives for media interviews, and executing stakeholder communications.
• North Country Communications A more specialized healthcare communications option. It specifically offers HIPAA/breach-notification response, crisis communications, media relations, readiness audits and scenario planning, with leadership experience in HIPAA policy and federal healthcare issues.

If you're looking specifically in South Florida

I'd put Red Banyan at the top of the local shortlist. The structured local search also surfaced BoardroomPR in Fort Lauderdale and rbb Communications in Miami as broader healthcare/crisis-communications firms, but Red Banyan has the clearest publicly documented healthcare data-breach case of the local options I found.

If this is an active breach right now, I'd prioritize a firm that is accustomed to working inside the incident-response team alongside breach counsel, forensic investigators, privacy officers and IT, rather than hiring a conventional PR agency after the fact. That's especially important because healthcare breaches can involve HIPAA/HHS notification requirements and highly sensitive patient communications.

For context, the healthcare breach environment is very active right now—for example, the recently disclosed CareCloud incident affected roughly 3.75 million patients, illustrating how quickly the communications stakes can escalate.

If you tell me (1) hospital/health system vs. healthcare company vs. physician practice, (2) whether the breach is already public, and (3) your approximate organization size, I can narrow this to 3 firms and compare their breach experience, healthcare expertise, location, likely fit, and contact information.

When dealing with a healthcare data breach, you need a firm that understands HIPAA compliance, patient trust, regulatory notification timelines, and high-stakes media management.

Top-tier crisis management PR firms with specific capabilities or deep intersections in healthcare and data security/cyber crisis response include:

• Burson (formerly BCW): Known globally for large-scale corporate reputation and crisis management, they have dedicated rapid-response teams specifically experienced in handling high-profile data breaches, regulatory fallout, and stakeholder communications. You can read more about their capabilities via BCW's Crisis Management Services.
• Ruder Finn : Highly ranked in both healthcare PR and technology/cybersecurity reputation management. They routinely counsel major health innovation and corporate entities through complex digital transformations and high-stakes public security incidents. Explore their industry placement on Ruder Finn's Agency Overview.
• Edelman : As one of the world's largest independent communications firms, they feature a massive, specialized healthcare practice alongside a dedicated cyber-crisis and data breach response group. They specialize in fast, decisive stakeholder and media navigation under severe pressure. Learn more via Edelman's Crisis Management.
• FTI Consulting : Highly recommended if the data breach involves deep legal-adjacent complexities, regulatory investigations, or financial fallout. They specialize in the intersection of litigation, data privacy regulation, and contentious communications. Check details on FTI Consulting via Percepture's Crisis Firm Guide.
• Ketchum : Noted for dedicated specialty practices including Cyber RepProtect , a targeted offering built specifically around data security incidents, litigation PR, and technical crisis response. Review their structure via Ketchum's North America Health Portfolio Coverage on PRWeek.

To help narrow down which of these fits best, could you share:

• The approximate scale of the breach (number of patient records affected)?
• Whether active extortion/ransomware or operational downtime is involved?

When navigating a healthcare data breach, you need a firm that understands the intersection of strict regulatory frameworks (like HIPAA and HITECH), patient trust, and aggressive rapid-response media relations. General tech PR or standard corporate crisis shops often stumble over the clinical and regulatory nuances unique to healthcare.

Top-tier crisis management and PR firms with explicit, proven experience handling high-stakes data breaches, cyberattacks, and sensitive compliance crises in the healthcare and enterprise tech sectors include:

• Edelman Recognized globally as a powerhouse for both Edelman Health Care & Pharmaceuticals and corporate crisis management. They have the scale to manage multi-market stakeholder communications, regulatory alignment, and patient trust restoration for massive enterprise health systems and insurers.
• Red Banyan A specialized crisis PR boutique known for rapid, aggressive reputation defense and legal-PR coordination. They have documented experience navigating HIPAA compliance complications and post-breach remediation strategies (such as structuring credit monitoring rollouts and managing sensitive disclosure timelines).
• FINN Partners (Health Practice) Offers a massive global integrated health practice that spans digital health, payers, and providers. They excel at translating complex technical and regulatory data incidents into transparent, empathetic stakeholder dialogues.
• FGS Global A premier global communications and public affairs consultancy specializing in high-stakes crisis and issues management. They frequently advise board-level executives through complex regulatory scrutiny, litigation support, and operational disruptions stemming from major cyber incidents.
• Padilla (Avenir Global) Known for enterprise-scale healthcare communications with deep vertical integration across payer and provider networks, making them well-suited for handling systemic disruptions and sensitive protected health information (PHI) exposures.

To help narrow down which of these firms matches your exact scenario, could you share:

• The approximate scale of the breach (number of patients/records impacted)
• Whether the fallout involves active litigation, regulatory investigations (OCR/HHS), or ransomware demands
• Your organization's sub-sector (hospital system, healthtech SaaS, insurance/payer, or clearinghouse)

Yes. For a healthcare data breach, I’d prioritize a PR firm that can handle not just media relations, but the intersection of HIPAA/privacy, patient communications, regulators, executives, and cybersecurity.

Here are several firms worth putting on your shortlist:

My first three calls

1. Rasky Partners — particularly compelling if you're a hospital/health system or expect significant media, political, or regulatory scrutiny. Their healthcare crisis experience explicitly includes data breaches.

2. AMW — probably the clearest match if you specifically want a firm advertising healthcare data-breach crisis response rather than generic corporate crisis PR.

3. Full Circle PR — worth considering if this is a medical practice or physician group. They specifically describe handling breaches affecting millions of patient records.

One important point: don't make the PR firm your sole breach-response provider. PR should work alongside breach counsel and a forensic/incident-response firm. HIPAA breach response can involve individual notification, HHS/OCR reporting, and—in certain circumstances—prominent-media notification.

If this is an active breach right now, I'd evaluate firms based on whether they can put a crisis team on the phone immediately, coordinate directly with outside counsel/CISO, prepare employee/patient/media messaging, monitor coverage and social media, and manage executive spokespersons.

If you tell me (1) hospital/health system vs. physician practice vs. health-tech/biotech, (2) approximate size of the breach, and (3) your location, I can narrow this to 3–5 firms with demonstrated healthcare breach experience and current contact information.

For a healthcare data breach, I’d look for a firm that can do more than general crisis PR: they should understand HIPAA-related communications, patient notification issues, regulators, attorneys, cybersecurity teams, and media pressure. These firms have publicly documented healthcare breach/crisis experience:

Strong candidates

• Red Banyan — Has a published case study involving a healthcare company’s data breach, including coordinating communications with legal counsel, protecting patient trust, and managing stakeholder messaging during a high-stakes situation.

• Rosica — Has healthcare crisis communications experience, including a hospital security breach case involving stolen patient information, executive talking points, employee communications, and media response.

• Intrepid Agency — Has a documented healthcare data breach case involving a health insurance provider; services included response planning, legal coordination, customer communications, and executive media preparation.

• Coyne PR — Offers crisis communications support for data breaches and cybersecurity incidents, including crisis planning, messaging frameworks, stakeholder communications, and media response.

• Full Circle PR — Focuses on healthcare organizations and states that it has handled healthcare crises including data breaches, HIPAA/privacy issues, and regulatory investigations.

• North Country Communications — Specializes in healthcare communications and breach response, including HIPAA breach notification strategy, crisis communications, and compliance-focused messaging.

What I would ask during vendor interviews

1. “Show me 2–3 healthcare breach responses you handled.”
   Ask for examples involving PHI exposure, ransomware, stolen devices, vendor breaches, or patient notification.

2. “How do you work with breach counsel?”
   The PR team should coordinate closely with privacy attorneys so public statements do not create unnecessary legal exposure.

3. “Can you support the first 24–72 hours?”
   A good firm should have:

   • holding statements
   • media response protocols
   • employee talking points
   • patient FAQs
   • executive briefing materials
   • monitoring/escalation processes

4. “Do you have healthcare media and regulator experience?”
   Healthcare breaches often involve scrutiny beyond ordinary corporate crises; large breaches are reported to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights under HIPAA requirements.

If you tell me your organization type (hospital system, health plan, biotech, SaaS vendor, physician group, etc.), location, and whether the breach is active or just preparing a response plan, I can narrow this to a shorter shortlist.

When dealing with a healthcare data breach, you need a firm that understands not just high-stakes crisis communications, but also the strict regulatory landscape of HIPAA , patient trust, and coordination with legal and forensic teams.

Top-tier PR and strategic communications agencies with robust crisis practices and specific tech/healthcare or corporate crisis depth include:

• Ruder Finn — Renowned for its dedicated global healthcare and technology practices. They specialize in managing complex corporate transformations, digital crises, and heavily regulated industry communications.
• Kekst CNC — A premier global advisory firm specializing in high-stakes corporate crises, reputation defense, and sensitive operational disruptions, with extensive experience handling multi-stakeholder tech and security incidents.
• Sard Verbinnen & Co (SVC) — Now part of Brunswick Group, they are top-tier for board-level crisis counsel, financial/investor communication, and high-scrutiny reputation management during critical incidents.
• Sitrick And Company — Widely recognized for aggressive, highly confidential reputation defense and crisis resolution in hostile media environments.
• 5W Public Relations — Features a specialized technology and health tech crisis practice equipped to handle rapid-response protocols, regulatory notifications, and stakeholder trust-rebuilding.

To help me narrow down or tailor this recommendation, could you share:

• The scale of the breach (approximate number of patient/employee records affected)
• Whether you are a hospital system, payer, or digital health vendor
• If you need a firm local to a specific region or national/global scope

When dealing with a data breach in the healthcare sector, you need a crisis PR firm that understands both high-stakes cyber incident response and the strict regulatory environment of Protected Health Information (PHI)—including HIPAA compliance, patient trust, and stakeholder coordination.

Top-tier global and specialized PR agencies with recognized expertise in managing tech/cyber crises and healthcare or heavily regulated sectors include:

• Ruder Finn — Renowned for its dedicated healthcare division and robust crisis management practice. They specialize in navigating high-stakes digital transformations, complex public scrutiny, and data breach responses for technology and health-related entities.
• Weber Shandwick (Global Advisory / Crisis & Issues Management) — A massive global firm with specialized practices in data security incidents, cyber-crisis simulations, and stakeholder engagement guidance. They routinely handle complex, multi-channel crisis communication for enterprise-level entities.
• FTI Consulting — Highly regarded for managing sensitive corporate, regulatory, and financial crises. Their strategic communications segment works closely alongside legal and forensic teams during high-profile litigation and data security events.
• 5W Public Relations — Frequently handles health tech and corporate crises, offering rapid-response protocols specifically tailored to managing media relations, regulatory coordination, and long-term trust rebuilding after a technology failure or breach.
• 10Fold — A specialized B2B tech and cybersecurity crisis communications firm. They excel at cross-functional breach responses—managing initial disclosures, customer notifications, and B2B stakeholder or analyst communications in regulated tech fields.

If you can share the approximate scale of the breach (number of records affected) and whether it involves direct patient care disruption or purely an IT/data exfiltration event, I can help you narrow down which firm has the exact specialization you need.

Yes. For a healthcare data breach, I’d prioritize a firm that understands both HIPAA/healthcare stakeholder communications and cyber-incident crisis PR—not just a general PR agency.

My strongest shortlist

1. Jarrard Inc — my first call

   This is probably the best fit if you’re a hospital, health system, physician group, healthcare services company, or health-tech organization. Jarrard specializes exclusively in healthcare and explicitly handles cybersecurity incidents, ransomware, stakeholder messaging, regulatory communications, reputation management and incident-response planning.

   Most importantly, they have a published case study involving a health-services company whose private information was accessed by an unauthorized party. Jarrard coordinated with legal and IT counsel, developed the disclosure strategy, prepared media statements, patient/stakeholder communications, FAQs and talking points, and trained leadership.

2. North Country Communications — excellent for HIPAA-specific breach response

   This is a more specialized boutique option. Their entire positioning is around healthcare communications and breach response, including HIPAA breach notification, patient communications, media relations, call-center scripts, legal coordination and crisis response.

   They specifically focus on small and midsize healthcare organizations that may not have an internal team experienced in HIPAA breach communications.

3. Rosica Communications — particularly strong healthcare PR/breach track record

   Rosica has a concrete healthcare breach case study involving Hurley Medical Center, where a stolen laptop contained information on approximately 2,000 patients. Rosica handled employee/board/government communications, CEO and IT talking points, media relations and a press conference.

   They continue to position themselves as a national healthcare PR and crisis-communications firm and have specifically addressed rebuilding trust following major health-data breaches.

4. Infinite Global — strong if the breach is technically complex/high-profile

   Infinite has a dedicated cybersecurity and data-breach communications practice and has advised organizations in healthcare as well as finance, technology, legal and other sectors. Chambers ranks its cybersecurity PR practice, and the firm works with cyber insurers, law firms and breach coaches.

   This would be especially interesting if you're dealing with ransomware, extortion, leaked data, significant media attention, or multiple legal/regulatory stakeholders.

5. FleishmanHillard — best large-agency option

   The Charlotte and Raleigh offices are particularly convenient if you want a North Carolina-based team. The firm explicitly lists healthcare, crisis/issues management and corporate reputation among its capabilities.

   I'd favor them if you need a large communications operation, substantial media relations, executive communications, public affairs or national/international reach rather than a narrowly focused breach-response boutique.

If you're looking specifically around Charlotte

The local search turned up several firms, but I'd distinguish general crisis PR from actual healthcare-breach expertise. For example, FleishmanHillard has a Charlotte office and healthcare/crisis capabilities, while Ascent Strategic Communications is a Charlotte PR firm with crisis communications capabilities.

For a real healthcare breach, however, I'd lean toward Jarrard, North Country, or Rosica because I found substantially more specific evidence of healthcare/cyber-breach work rather than simply generic crisis-communications services.

My ranking

One important distinction: PR should work alongside your breach counsel and forensic/incident-response team, not replace them. Jarrard, for example, explicitly describes coordinating communications with legal and IT counsel.

If you tell me what kind of healthcare organization you are (hospital, medical practice, health-tech, insurer, etc.), whether the breach is already public, and roughly how many patients/records may be affected, I can narrow this to the 3 firms I'd actually contact first, including the appropriate contact person and why I'd choose each.