Top Stories for 8/6

COVID-19 pandemic exposes vulnerabilities in the digital ecosystem; CMS anticipates $33 Medicare Part D Premiums . Plus: WellSky is deepens its social determinants of health offerings by acquiring Healthify.

Links to the stories:

Healthcare data breaches on the rise

Medicare Part D average premiums to increase nearly 5% in 2022, CMS says

WellSky beefs up community care tools with Healthify acquisition

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

Healthcare data breaches are on the rise, and the pandemic may be partly to blame. I’m Jeff Lagasse with Healthcare Finance News, and we’ll explore that and more in this week’s Top Stories.

 An identity breach report from the risk protection services vendor Constella Intelligence found that the COVID-19 pandemic presented a variety of new ways for bad actors to take advantage of vulnerabilities in the digital ecosystem. As we see in Healthcare IT News (https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/healthcare-data-breaches-rise), although the healthcare sector did not make up a huge percentage of the analyzed data breaches, the industry did experience a 51% increase in the total volume of records exposed when compared with 2019. Almost 60% of data breaches across sectors exposed some form of personally identifiable information, and 72% of these breaches included passwords.

 The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has released its projections for average basic monthly premiums for standard Medicare Part D coverage in 2022, which the agency expects will be about $33 -- a 4.9% increase from the $31.47 average premium in 2021. Healthcare Finance News reports (https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/medicare-part-d-average-premiums-increase-nearly-5-2022-cms-says) that the projected average basic premium is calculated based on plans' expectations of per capita drug spending in the coming year. CMS anticipates releasing the final 2022 premium and cost-sharing information for 2022 Medicare Advantage and Part D plans in mid-to-late September. 

 Finally this week, Healthcare software and services company WellSky is deepening its social determinants of health offerings by acquiring Healthify. According to MobiHealthNews, (https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/wellsky-beefs-community-care-tools-healthify-acquisition_) the New York-based startup has created a social determinants infrastructure that builds and supports networks of community-based organizations and local healthcare providers. Its interoperable technology platform then allows providers to search for local social services, coordinate care and track the success of interventions. WellSky will add Healthify’s SDOH capabilities to its portfolio of healthcare technology tools for providers, payers, health systems and community organizations, with the deal expected to close in the third quarter of this year.

 I’m Jeff Lagasse with Healthcare Finance News, and this has been Top Stories.