Ransomware strikes again. Who was the target this time? I’m Jeff Lagasse with Healthcare Finance News, and we’ll dig for answers to that and other developments in this week’s Top Stories.
A ransomware attack on the healthcare administrative service provider CaptureRx has exposed patient information from multiple provider systems. As we see in HealthcareITNews, (https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/thousands-patient-records-exposed-after-ransomware-attack-capturerx) the attack occurred on February 6, when malicious actors acquired files that CaptureRx had received from healthcare providers. The company began notifying providers of the incident on March 30, but at this point the full breadth of the impact is still unknown, although data shows that more than 17,000 patients at Faxton St. Luke’s Healthcare in New York were affected, as well as thousands more at hospitals and facilities from Vermont to Texas. Ransomware has been an industry threat for years, and in 2020 hackers demanded an average ransom of $4.6 million.
Telehealth has undergone a radical transformation during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, but while patients have benefited from increased access, temporary reimbursement parity has caused concerns among major insurers about the potential for overutilization. According to Healthcare Finance News, (https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/telehealth-reimbursement-parity-spurs-insurer-concerns-overutilization-though-future-bright), some big insurers are pulling back some of their telehealth coverage for non-COVID-19-related issues. This seems to be a preventive step, though, as insurers aren’t feeling the pinch quite yet. In fact, profits among the major insurers are largely up. In 2020, gross margins were higher and medical loss ratios were lower than in 2019. Cigna, for its part, said it remained committed to reimbursing telehealth at the same rate as in-person services.
Finally this week, Bigfoot Biomedical announced it has received FDA clearance for its Bigfoot Unity Diabetes Management System. MobiHealthNews reports (https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/fda-greenlights-bigfoot-biomedicals-insulin-recommending-diabetes-management-system) that the system was cleared for use among individuals 12 years old and up with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes who use multiple-dose injection therapy. Included in the system are two smartpen caps for both rapid- and long-acting insulin, a connected mobile app, an integrated FreeStyle Libre 2 Sensor from Abbott and a blood glucose meter. Prior to this, Bigfoot closed a series of well-funded financing rounds worth $55 million apiece.
I’m Jeff Lagasse with Healthcare Finance News, and this has been Top Stories.