Change Healthcare Partially Reopens System More Than 2 Weeks After Hack
Its e-prescribing platform is up and running after a Feb. 21 cyberattack pushed it offline. The company hopes to reactivate two other platforms — for electronic payments and medical claims — late next week.
Modern Healthcare:
Change Healthcare Update: Systems Coming Back Online Next Week
UnitedHealth Group reopened Change Healthcare’s electronic prescribing platform, and expects to restore other key parts of the system next week, the company said in a notice on its website Thursday. Change Healthcare’s electronic prescribing platform came back online Thursday, according to UnitedHealth Group, which operates Change Healthcare through its Optum subsidiary. The company anticipates reactivating the electronic payments platform on March 15 and restoring the medical claims network for customers the week of March 18. (Young, 3/7)
KFF Health News:
Biden Team, UnitedHealth Struggle To Restore Paralyzed Billing Systems After Cyberattack
Margaret Parsons, one of three dermatologists at a 20-person practice in Sacramento, California, is in a bind. Since a Feb. 21 cyberattack on a previously obscure medical payment processing company, Change Healthcare, Parsons said, she and her colleagues haven’t been able to electronically bill for their services. She heard Noridian Healthcare Solutions, California’s Medicare payment processor, was not accepting paper claims as of earlier this week, she said. And paper claims can take 3-6 months to result in payment anyway, she estimated. (Tahir, Wolfson and Chang, 3/8)
In other health care industry news —
Modern Healthcare:
Why Physician, Nursing Shortages Persist And What Can Be Done
Training bottlenecks, uneven distribution of certain providers and expected regulation are adding roadblocks to efforts to tackle pervasive staffing shortages throughout healthcare. The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis predicts that by 2036 the industry will have shortages of more than 68,000 primary care physicians, 62,400 psychologists, 42,100 psychiatrists, 6,600 obstetrician-gynecologists and 33,100 family medicine physicians, in addition to deficits of other specialties. (Devereaux, 3/7)
Modern Healthcare:
Epic Brings EHR Software To Apple App Store For Macs
Electronic health record company Epic said Thursday its software is available on Apple’s App Store. Clinicians who use Apple’s Mac computers can download the program directly through the technology giant’s App Store. This version of Epic is designed specifically for Apple computers, the EHR company said. This is the first time Epic will run its application directly on Mac computers. (Turner, 3/7)
The Boston Globe:
AI Spotted Fake Health News Better Than People Per UNH Study
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire found that a machine learning model – a form of artificial intelligence – could better detect inadequacies in medical news than a layperson in a new study. Ermira Zifla, assistant professor of decision sciences at UNH’s Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, said she decided to look into fake news during the pandemic, when dubious health claims circulated widely on social media. (Gokee, 3/7)
Stat:
Former Medical Device CEO Who Sold Dummy, Plastic Parts Convicted Of Fraud
A New York jury on Wednesday convicted the former CEO of Stimwave, a company that sold devices with dummy pieces of plastic, on two counts of health care fraud. The maximum jail sentence for each count is 20 years. (Lawrence, 3/7)
