FTC Set To Tighten Rules On Health Apps Sharing Users’ Data
The Federal Trade Commission has finalized its Health Breach Notification Rule, emphasizing that it applies to health apps, in an effort to limit how sensitive user data is shared with other companies. Also in the news: Centene updates prior authorization; growing financial differences between hospitals; and more.
Fierce Healthcare:
FTC Finalizes Changes To Health Breach Notification Rule
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finalized a rule Friday that aims to tighten the reins on digital health apps sharing consumers' sensitive medical data with tech companies. The agency issued a final version of its revised Health Breach Notification Rule to underscore the rule’s applicability to health apps in a bid to protect consumers' data privacy and provide more transparency about how companies collect their health information. (Landi, 4/26)
Chicago Tribune:
Rush Partnering With Top-Ranked MD Anderson On Cancer Center
Rush University System for Health is teaming up with top-ranked University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center — a move that’s expected to give Rush patients better access to the latest cancer treatments and help Rush compete against other Chicago-area hospitals. (Schencker, 4/26)
Modern Healthcare:
Centene Finishes Prior Authorization Update: CEO Sarah London
Centene has updated its prior authorization system with an eye toward speeding pre-approval decisions for patients and providers. “We completed an important initiative to simplify our prior authorization process by automating our real-time source data,” CEO Sarah London said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call Friday. “This simplification improves the timeliness of prior authorization decisions, ensuring our members get the care they need quickly and removing friction from the process overall for both members and providers.” (Tepper, 4/26)
Axios:
Years After The Pandemic, Financial Differences Grow Among U.S. Hospitals
Some health systems have recovered from the pandemic much better than others, and those with healthier margins tend to be the ones that made a stronger push into outpatient care. There's a wildly large and growing difference between the operating margins of top-performing health systems and those at the bottom, according to Kaufman Hall data shared with Axios. (Owens, 4/26)
Stat:
Making AI In Medicine Accessible To Smaller, And Rural Hospitals
In Kingman, Ariz., a windswept city of 35,000 at the eastern edge of the Mojave desert, data scientists are about as rare as a drenching rain. The local health clinic doesn’t have a stable internet connection, much less the software to support the latest, greatest artificial intelligence. But the clinic, a federally qualified health center called North Country HealthCare, has plenty of problems AI could help with. (Ross, 4/29)
KFF Health News:
Exposed To Agent Orange At US Bases, Veterans Face Cancer Without VA Compensation
As a young GI at Fort Ord in Monterey County, California, Dean Osborn spent much of his time in the oceanside woodlands, training on soil and guzzling water from streams and aquifers now known to be contaminated with cancer-causing pollutants. “They were marching the snot out of us,” he said, recalling his year and a half stationed on the base, from 1979 to 1980. (Norman and Kime, 4/29)
On health worker unions —
Reuters:
CVS Omnicare Staff In Las Vegas Vote To Join New Union
Staff at CVS Health's unit Omnicare in Las Vegas voted to join the Pharmacy Guild, becoming the first location at the national pharmacy chain to join the union. About 87% of workers at CVS Omnicare, a provider of pharmacy services to long-term care facilities, in Las Vegas voted on Thursday in favor of unionization. The vote comes months after some employees at CVS Health and Walgreens Boots Alliance's U.S. pharmacies launched a walkout, to push the companies to improve working conditions and add more staff to their stores. (4/26)
The Baltimore Sun:
Doctors Completing Post-Graduate Training Push For Union At Baltimore Hospitals
Resident physicians and fellows at the University of Maryland Medical Center have notified the hospitals’ leaders of their intent to unionize and begin the collective bargaining process. (Roberts, 4/26)
