Two healthcare data breaches of note: International Committee of the Red Cross and Jefferson Health

Healthcare data breaches have become so commonplace that this Editor now leaves it to others to report. They all share the same characteristics–international hackers inserting ransomware in compromised systems and demanding billions in bitcoin, disgruntled employees erasing or taking home files, burglaries, inside jobs of various stripes. A steady drumbeat despite many efforts to secure against outside attacks and continously monitor systems, still there are plenty of legacy devices floating around hospitals and clinics using outdated computer software and initial setup passwords.

But this one hits a new high of heartlessness. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), headquartered in Geneva, reported that on 18 January that servers hosting the personal information of more than 500,000 displaced people receiving aid services from the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement program had been hacked. The servers were located in Switzerland and were directly targeted. The 515,000 records were of people in the ‘Restoring Family Links’ program which aids missing people and their families, unaccompanied or separated children, detainees, and other people as a result of armed conflict, natural disasters, or migration. The information consisted of names, locations, and contacts.  In addition, log in information of 2,000 workers was also breached. Pray tell, where’s the monetary value in this? Or is there something more nefarious? These systems and their information have been taken offline, hampering this international program. ICRC ‘What We Know’, Becker’s Health IT, Healthcare IT News

A more ‘garden variety’ breach of 9,000 patients’ protected health information (PHI) took place in November at Philadelphia’s Jefferson Health. This was an insurance portal breach that accessed patient billing information with the intent of rerouting the payments from the hospital to themselves. The hacker in the process gained access to patient billing information, names, dates of treatment, treatment codes and costs, but not the jackpot of SSI and other financial information. The article does not disclose whether payments were successfully redirected.  Becker’s Health IT

Weekend reading: the strange reasons why Amwell doesn’t consider Amazon a competitor; ground rules for the uneasy marriage of healthcare and technology

Yahoo Finance interviewed co-CEO/founder of Amwell Ido Schoenburg, MD on the company’s 2020 results and forecast for 2021. It makes for interesting but convoluted reading on their growth last year in what is a consolidating field where Amwell was once one of the undisputed two leaders. They now compete against payers acquiring telehealth companies (MDLive going to Optum) and mergers like Doctor on Demand-Grand Rounds that are taking increasing market shares. Then there are specialty providers like SOC Telemed and white-labels like Bluestream Health. However, there are a couple of whoppers in the happy talk of growth for all. Dr. S pegs the current run rate of telehealth visits at 15-20 percent. The best research from Commonwealth Fund (October) and FAIR Health (August) tracked telehealth at 6 percent of in-office visits. Epic Health Research Network measured 21 percent at end of August. [TTA summary here

Then there’s the tap dance around Amazon Care. His view is that telehealth companies all need a connective platform but that each competitor brings ‘modular components’ of what they do best. What Amazon excels at is the consumer experience; in his view, that is their contribution to this ‘coalition’ because healthcare doesn’t do that well. There’s a statement at the end which this Editor will leave Readers to puzzle through:  

“And Amazon and others could bring a lot of value to those coalitions, they should not be seen as necessarily competing unless you’re trying to do exactly what they do. And there are some companies, including some telehealth companies, that that’s what they do. They focus on services. They try to sell you a very affordable visit with a short wait time and a good experience. They should be incredibly concerned when someone so sophisticated as Amazon is trying to compete in that turf.”

The last time this Editor looked, none of these companies were non-profit, though nearly all are not profitable.

Gimlet EyeLooking through her Gimlet Eye, Amazon Care is a win-win, even if the whole enterprise loses money. In this view, Amazon accumulates and owns national healthcare data far more valuable than the consumer service, then can do what they want with it, such as cross-analysis against PillPack and OTC medical shopping habits, even books, toys, home supplies, and clothing. Ka-ching!

A ‘bucket of cold water’ article, published in Becker’s Health IT last month, takes a Gimlety view of the shotgun marriage of healthcare and technology. Those of us laboring in those vineyards for the better part of two decades might disagree with the author in part, but we all remember how every new company was going to ‘revolutionize healthcare’. (The over-the-top blatherings of ZocDoc‘s former leadership provide a perfect example.) The post-Theranos/Outcome Health/uBiome world has demonstrated that the Silicon Valley modus operandi of ‘fake it till you make it’ and ‘failing fast and breaking things’, barely ethical in consumer businesses, are totally unethical in healthcare which deals in people’s lives. Then again, healthcare focused on ‘people as patients’ cannot stand either. Stephen K. Klasko, MD, President and CEO, Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health in Pennsylvania, advocates for a change–far more concisely than Dr. Schoenburg. You may want to pass this along.

InTouch Health launches a three-way collaboration on virtual acute care with Jefferson Health, Mission Health

Telehealth provider InTouch Health announced a five-year joint partnership with Asheville, North Carolina-based Mission Health and Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health to develop 10 new models in virtual acute and outpatient care. These use cases are not “typical telehealth” and include stroke, sepsis, and acute heart failure.

It’s an interesting expansion of the telemedicine/telehealth acute care model, especially if it extends to outpatient care. InTouch is building upon several years of separate work with each health system. In this joint development arrangement, the health systems will share information and with InTouch Health. What is also interesting that working with both systems allows InTouch to test virtual care access and whether it increases care coordination in diverse settings. Jefferson is an urban university hospital based in Center City Philadelphia, while Mission serves an economically mixed suburban and rural area. According to the release, this is to “ensure the care pathways and supporting technologies improve patient access and quality of care and are applicable across markets and geographies.”

Jefferson Health has worked with InTouch for nearly a decade, using the InTouch telestroke program for its 30 hospitals in the Jefferson Neuroscience Network. Mission Health is using their telestroke, telepsychiatric, tele-hospitalist, and tele-neonatology programs. The InTouch programs include virtual platforms, clinical workflow solutions, and software.

There is no mention here of using new telehealth partner Vivify Health [TTA 19 Dec] for their Managed Kit and BYOD, but to this Editor the most likely place for their systems would be integration into outpatient care. Outpatient service could also be furnished by their new home-based video consult services acquired through their purchase earlier this month of TruClinic.

Since 2003, InTouch has rounded up over $26 million in funding through a 2010 $6 million Series D. The fact that their funding has been conservative (compared to the over $158 million Practice Fusion raised in a dozen years before their acquisition earlier this month by Allscripts) and have managed to make several acquisitions in that time either indicates excellent cash flow from existing business or undisclosed sources of private financing. Release. Mobihealthnews.