Compliance & Legal
Calling Blackbaud's security before a major data breach "lax," the Federal Trade Commission said the company allowed a hacker to steal PII and PHI, and ordered it to delete old data and report on its data usage going forward.
While all facilities are reportedly open and providing care, disruptions continue, with some provider sites unable to fill prescriptions, certain procedures rescheduled and delays in diagnostic imaging and testing.
Meanwhile, staff at the health system say they don't have patient orders and can't page doctors. As it works to restore clinical systems, Ascension says it's working with law enforcement and sharing threat intelligence to help prevent similar attacks.
Provider organizations first should do the basics, such as following HIPAA security rule compliance and conducting a security risk analysis, advises Carolyn Metnick, partner and Healthcare and Privacy & Cybersecurity team member at Sheppard Mullin.
Nursing and IT
For nurse practitioners and physician assistants in states with restrictive practice rules, it matches them with other clinicians, automates licensing compliance and provides EHR-agnostic chart sharing and a HIPAA-compliant chat.
The company's Dream Sock, which received FDA 510(k) clearance in November, gathers real-time health readings, including a baby's sleep trends and pulse rate.
The Agency has qualified Apple's atrial fibrillation history feature as a medical device development tool, allowing it to be used in clinical trials.
While extortion continues to drive the work of cyber adversaries, organizations are restoring from attacks faster and making ransom payments less frequently than in years past, the data and security experts said.
In a letter to the Office for Civil Rights, the Medical Group Management Association asked HHS to ensure its provider members will be held blameless and that UnitedHealth and Change Healthcare will take on the administrative work of alerting customers.
The American Hospital Association called the FTC ruling, "bad law, bad policy and a clear sign of an agency run amok."