When It Comes To Hospitals, Robocalls Aren’t Just A Nuisance But A Life-Or-Death Challenge
Hospitals "can't not pick them up," said Steven Cardinal, a top security official at the Medical University of South Carolina. "They don't have any indicator it's a spoof until they answer it." Officials across the country are terrified for the day that their phone systems can't keep up with the spam on top of a real emergency. And there doesn't seem to be any relief in sight. In other health tech news: a data breach ends in bankruptcy, a look at how 13 became the age of adulthood for the Internet, and e-prescriptions.
The Washington Post:
Robocalls Are Overwhelming Hospitals And Patients, Threatening A New Kind Of Health Crisis
In the heart of Boston, Tufts Medical Center treats scores of health conditions, administering measles vaccines for children and pioneering next-generation tools that can eradicate the rarest of cancers. But doctors, administrators and other hospital staff struggled to contain a much different kind of epidemic one April morning last year: a wave of thousands of robocalls that spread like a virus from one phone line to the next, disrupting communications for hours. For most Americans, such robocalls represent an unavoidable digital-age nuisance, resulting in seemingly constant interruptions targeting their phones. (Romm, 6/17)
Bloomberg:
Debt Collector Goes Bankrupt After Health Care Data Hack
Retrieval-Masters Creditors Bureau Inc., whose business was blamed for a large-scale data breach that affected millions of Quest Diagnostics Inc. customers, filed for Chapter 11 protection, citing fallout from the security issue. The company, which collects patient receivables for medical labs under the name American Medical Collection Agency, listed assets and liabilities of as much as $10 million in its bankruptcy petition filed in the Southern District of New York. It’s aiming to liquidate, the company said. (Hill, 6/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
How 13 Became The Internet’s Age Of Adulthood
At 13, kids are still more than a decade from having a fully developed prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in decision-making and impulse control. And yet parents and educators unleash them on the internet at that age—if not before—because they’re told children in the U.S. must be at least 13 to download certain apps, create email accounts and sign up for social media. Parents might think of the age-13 requirement as a PG-13 movie rating: Kids might encounter a bit more violence and foul language but nothing that will scar them for life. But this isn’t an age restriction based on content. Tech companies are just abiding by a 1998 law called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which was intended to protect the privacy of children ages 12 or under. (Jargon, 6/18)
Politico Pro:
CMS Proposes Prior Authorization Standard For E-Prescriptions In Part D
Medicare Part D drug plans should use the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs' SCRIPT standard for prior authorization purposes, the agency says in a proposed rule issued today. The standard is intended ease the submission of prior authorization requests through web portals, rather than fax or other paper methods, which the agency believes will speed up authorizations and streamline red tape surrounding some drug prescriptions. (Tahir, 6/17)
