Weekender 4/24/20

Weekly News Recap

• Banner Health’s judge-approved $8.9 million payout for a massive data breach in 2016 includes $500 for each patient in the class and $2.9 million for plaintiffs’ attorneys.
• The federal government announces that it will delay enforcing compliance with final interoperability rules so that healthcare stakeholders can focus on COVID-19-related operations.
• Cognizant alerts customers that a ransomware attract is disrupting some of its services.
• Several companies work together to create a database of de-identified, patient-level data for COVID-19 researchers.
• The VA and DoD launch a health information exchange that allows providers from both organizations to exchange patient information with community partners.
• Google announces GA of the Google Cloud Healthcare API.
• CMS announces that hospitals in areas that have low coronavirus outbreak risk can start offering routine services again.
• FDA waives limitations on using digital health for treating psychiatric disorders.
• UW Medicine (WA) publishes its IT experience in dealing with the health system’s coronavirus response.

Best Reader Comments

Re: VA & DoD HIE capabilities. Are we going to just sit here and pretend that both agencies weren’t already bi-directionally exchanging CCDs with huge amounts of outside clinicians via the eHealth Exchange for years? Maybe the massive note formatting issues from VA-crafted documents were just a fever dream of mine. (Perplexed)

These CCF models had the peak in mid-June WITH the distancing staying in place since mid-March. Those have been discounted. They also predicted 100,000 dead in Ohio in March WITH distancing. Then 10,000 dead in April. Their models have been WILDLY off. And unfortunately the public health people have been bludgeoning the politicians with freakishly wrong modeling, which has led to scaring the public to death and closing businesses indefinitely. (Meltoots)

RE: SDH referral platforms. The SIREN network (out of UCSF) published its evaluation last year (full disclosure I was a consultant on it). What’s missing from all these platforms and reports on them is their actual impact on health outcomes. (ex-hhc)

Watercooler Talk Tidbits

Readers funded the Donors Choose teacher grant request of Ms. M in North Carolina, who asked for multicultural development materials for her at-risk, pre-school class.  She reports, “This project been a surprising resource for my young students. The children noticed right away the different families’ cultures and they love to talk with their friends about what they see. The school is in a military town and most of my students come from different ethnic backgrounds. I appreciate the posters of real families from around the world. I cannot thank you enough for supporting our classroom.”

A scrubs-wearing nurse from Canada who told border authorities that she was driving to Detroit to help Henry Ford Hospital with COVID-19 is arrested when officers open her Ford Fusion trunk and find 150 pounds of marijuana.

A bankrupt 25-bed critical access hospital in rural Oklahoma has only eight nurses and an office manager remaining as full-time employees, hoping to trim expenses by operating just the ED to attract a buyer. A company submitted the sole bid of $200,000 at a bankruptcy auction, but has backed out of the deal as coronavirus left it worried about being unable to meet operating costs. The hospital is one of 18 facilities that have closed or entered bankruptcy after being taken over by EmpowerHMS, which is being investigated by the Department of Justice for billing out-of-state lab tests through the hospitals to take advantage of their higher payment rates.

Detroit ED physician Luda Khait-Vlisides, MD, MS raises money to buy tablets to allow patients who are being placed on life support, allowing them to have what could be their final family conversations via video since visitors aren’t allowed.

A hospital nurse in Texas posts a note in the window of a COVID-19 patient’s isolation room to explain why he was staying longer than expected.

In Spain, a taxi driver who regularly drives people to the hospital for free is surprised there by doctors and nurses, who give him a standing ovation, an envelope with money, and the negative results of his coronavirus test.

In Case You Missed It

• News 4/24/20
• EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 4/23/20
• Readers Write: Blowing the Whistle on Technology Fraud in the Healthcare Industry
• HIStalk Interviews Jeremy Schwach, CEO, Bluetree Network
• News 4/22/20
• Curbside Consult with Dr. Jayne 4/20/20
• How the Pandemic is Changing Consulting Work (Survey Results)
• Monday Morning Update 4/20/20

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