Life is hectic, we know, so here’s a recap of the Healthcare Weekly Hot Topics you can’t afford to miss:
- Hospitals Hit by Ransomware Attacks Seeing an Increase in Heart Patients’ Death Rates. Fox News. November 15, 2019.
The way hospitals respond to a cyber attack can result in a slower response to critical heart patients. After a cyber attack, corrective actions to improve security in hospital information technology systems may disrupt care processes and reduce the quality of care, a study shows.
2) Google Was About to Post X-Rays with Personal Data Online Before National Institute of Health (NIH) Intervened. Becker’s Health Review. November 15, 2019.
Days before Google was planning to post more than 100,000 X-ray images online, the NIH called Google to intervene. The NIH told Google that some of the images were still labeled with details that could identify patients. Promptly, Google terminated its X-ray project with NIH.
3) Hospital Pays $5.3 Million to Settle Civil Monetary Penalty (CMP) Case Over Critical Care. Compliance Cosmos. November 15, 2019.
UC San Diego Health System agreed to settle allegations under the Civil Monetary Penalties Law that it billed Medicare, Medi-Cal and TRICARE for inpatient admissions that should have been outpatient or observation services, and charged for critical care management services without supporting documentation.
4) OxyContin Maker Purdue Pharma to Pay States’ Lawyers. Reuters. November 20, 2019.
Purdue Pharma got court approval to reimburse millions of dollars in legal fees for states that back its proposed $10 billion settlement of opioid lawsuits, but with a condition meant to help victims of the addiction crisis.
5) Hundreds of Hospitals Sue HHS to Stop Medicare Pay Cuts. Bloomberg Law. November 20, 2019.
More than 600 hospitals sued the Health and Human Services Department in a District of Columbia federal court to force the agency to end a Medicare pay cut that they say cost them about $124.4 million per year in 2018 and 2019.
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