Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Cyberattacks On Hospitals Hit Services In Multiple States
AP: Hospital Chain Attack Part Of Ongoing Cybersecurity Concerns
Diverted ambulances. Cancer treatment delayed. Electronic health records offline. These are just some of ripple effects of an apparent cyberattack on a major nonprofit health system that disrupted operations throughout the U.S. While CommonSpirit Health confirmed it experienced an “IT security issue” earlier this week, the company has remained mum when pressed for more details about the scope of the attack. The health system giant has 140 hospitals in 21 states. As of Thursday, it’s still unknown how many of its 1,000 care sites that serve 20 million Americans were affected. (Foody and Kruesi, 10/6)
Des Moines Register: MercyOne Clinics Operating After Online Systems Shut Down By Breach
All care locations in MercyOne Central Iowa's region, including Des Moines, remain open and are caring for patients even as the health system struggles with an unspecified IT security breach affecting its parent company, official said. (Ramm, 10/6)
In other health industry news —
Healthcare Dive: Google Launches Suite Of Digital Tools Around Medical Images
Google is launching a set of tools meant to make medical images more interoperable and help organizations develop artificial intelligence and machine learning models around them. Billions of medical images are scanned each year, and imaging data makes up 90% of all healthcare data, according to research from Cornell University. (Pifer, 10/6)
Stat: Health Plans Want To Be Able To Text Underserved Patients
Health plans trying to reach low-income and underserved customers say they’re being stymied by a decades-old federal rule limiting texting — and they’re framing it as a health equity issue in their bid to change it. (Ravindranath, 10/7)
The Boston Globe: Some Doctors Are Reluctant To Care For Patients With Disabilities, Study Finds
“[Physicians] don’t necessarily know about making accommodations,” said Iezzoni, a professor at Harvard Medical School and a longtime disability researcher, who has multiple sclerosis. “For almost 25 years now people have been asking me, ‘Why is health care so far behind every other industry?’ You go to see a Celtics game or Fenway and they have great disability access. But health care facilities, not so much.” (Bartlett, 10/6)
KHN: Hurricane Ian Shows That Coastal Hospitals Aren’t Ready For Climate Change
As rapidly intensifying storms and rising sea levels threaten coastal cities from Texas to the tip of Maine, Hurricane Ian has just demonstrated what researchers have warned: Hundreds of hospitals in the U.S. are not ready for climate change. Hurricane Ian forced at least 16 hospitals from central to southwestern Florida to evacuate patients after it made landfall near the city of Fort Myers on Sept. 28 as a deadly Category 4 storm. (Chang and Sausser, 10/7)
