Search Results for data breaches

Short takes: VA seeks vendor to support EHR testing; Defense Health seeks ‘digital front door’ vendor; GAO recommendations to Oracle; Nonin partners with Finland’s Medixine; Lumeris gains $100M equity funding

...team of vendors. The change areas are patient experience, provider-supported technology in the health ecosystem, and data management support. NextGov/FCW, DHA press release The Digital Front Door Plus solicitation with details has a response due by 1 May The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommendations coming out of their ongoing user satisfaction study of MHS Genesis that impact the joint MHS/VA implementation at the MHS Genesis Lovell FHCC implementation. This went live in March. The recommendation for the VA side is that “the Secretary of Veterans Affairs should direct the Federal EHR Modernization Office to identify and address specific... Continue Reading

Breaking: UnitedHealth admits to paying ransomwareistes on Change stolen patient data (updated)

...fun fact that DataBreaches.net points to in its short article is that the Wall Street Journal (also cited by TechCrunch) said that its research indicated that the original breach came from stolen remote access credentials. It took only a week for ALPHV’s hackers to explore the system before deploying the cyberransom and hacking software through Change’s systems. Updated: the WSJ pins the original breach to 12 February but the hackers didn’t ‘detonate’ the ransomware till 21 February. Also multi-factor authentication is standard operating procedure for remote access, but MFA wasn’t enabled on this. Developing and will be updated. Our article... Continue Reading

Who really has the 4TB of Change Healthcare data 4 sale? And in great timing, Optum lays off a rumored 20K–say wot?

...the latest updates from DataBreaches. net, Over a month later, an outfit called RansomHub posted, again on the dark web, that it has the 4TB of data. As reported here on 10 April, there was an announcement on the RansomHub website, not signed by ‘notchy’, that if Change wasn’t interested in paying for the data, it would be up for sale. There was some confusion, based on a WIRED report, that this was a second breach. The RansomHub information seemed to point to only ‘notchy’s’ data. DataBreaches followed up with RansomHub to 1) verify they had the data, asking if... Continue Reading

Weekend reading: 23andMe’s exploding plastic inevitable fate–and what might have been

...initially via a five-year exclusive deal with GSK. That commercial use proved to be a sticky wicket with consumers concerned about how their data was being protected, with opting out made (deliberately?) opaque and difficult. Other than Lemonaid, 23andMe failed to successfully diversify beyond the core ‘one and done’ genotype testing until very late last year. Last February, after their disastrous 6.9 million record data breach turned the spotlights on, the Wall Street Journal revealed that a pricey subscription program for lifestyle counseling that included clinical exome sequencing plus Lemonaid called Total Health failed to gain traction after its late... Continue Reading

Mid-week short takes: UnitedHealth’s $1.2B Q1 loss from Change attack, another Walgreens layoff, Dexcom-MD Revolution partner, Kontakt.io $47.5 raise, GeBBS Healthcare may sell for $1B

...in several waves earlier this year and last fall, VillageMD staff due to 140 closures, and 646 distribution center staff laid off last month. Walgreens stock is down 33% this year. In cheerier news, Dexcom is partnering with remote patient monitoring (RPM) provider MD Revolution to add its continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system to MD Revolution’s RPM platform. MDR is a startup company marketing its RPM platform to large practices, health systems, and healthcare organizations. Current raises date back to 2015 totaling under $60 million mostly from venture round funding (Crunchbase). Release Inpatient data analytics company Kontakt.io raised a Series... Continue Reading

News roundup: VillageMD sued on Meta Pixel trackers; Cerebral pays $7.1M FTC fine on data sharing, cancellation policy; VA may resume Oracle Cerner implementation during FY2025; Epic-Particle Health dispute on PHI sharing

...This has now degenerated into a ‘who said what‘ dispute, with Particle and their CEO alleging that Epic implied that it completely disconnected Particle Health and its customers from Epic’s data, while Epic has said that after a review by its 15-member Care Everywhere Governing Council, they flagged three companies who were using Particle’s Carequality connection to access data not related to patient care or treatment. There’s also a larger concern being brought up by providers on the use of these mass data exchanges for fraudulent extraction of data or use that would violate HIPAA guidelines. FierceHealthcare, CNBC, Becker’s, Morningstar... Continue Reading

Digital health’s Q1 according to Rock Health: the New Reality is a flat spin back to 2019

...surprise that AI was ‘the thing this year’ in attracting funding–almost as much as financial success being redefined as bottom-line profitability, conservative (what we used to call sandbagged) forecasts, and an emphasis on outcome data. Companies that claimed AI in their products or services accounted for 45 deals with $1.1 billion of Q1’s funding, or 40%, versus 2023’s 33% of funding. Rock Health’s analysis made much of outcomes data and that showing efficacy is now more important--and at earlier stages. It serves to differentiate players in the market (something we marketers have known about forever). For funders it can illuminate... Continue Reading

News roundup: Now Clover Health faces delisting; BlackCat/ALPHV affiliate with 4TB of data puts it up for sale; $58M for Biolinq’s ‘smallest blood glucose biosensor’

...nasty comments about BlackCat/ALPHV and claiming it had 4TB of data now has put the specs out on a dark web site called Ransomhub. The post first accuses ALPHV of stealing the $22 million ransom paid by UnitedHealth Group and not sharing it with the affiliate. It then claims it has highly sensitive data from multiple Change customers including active military PII (from Tricare), patient PII, payment and claims data, and much more. If Change/UHG isn’t interested, it will be up for sale to the highest bidder. Readers will recall the claims of ‘notchy’ early in the Change Healthcare attack... Continue Reading

Opinion: Further thoughts on Teladoc, Amwell, and the future of telehealth–what happens next?

...that benefit companies like Amazon Clinic and triage-type systems.) People use it when needed, but the enterprise payment model is subscriber-based. Teladoc has long claimed its subscriber base is 90 million people–but user data from HHS (ASPE 3/2023) indicates that only one of four use it. For an enterprise, paying for subscribers, this is a big fat line item ready to cut. Payers have also integrated telehealth into their coverage. Teladoc has, to its credit, created payer partnerships such as with Aetna, but so have others. Bottom line: there’s no more ‘blue water’ market left for a big player like... Continue Reading

Davids (AliveCor, Masimo) v. Goliath (Apple): the patent infringement game *not* over; Masimo’s messy proxy fight with Politan (updated)

...resources.” The shocker here is that Apple, in this case, stated to Bochner that it filed “roughly 10%” of the USPTO’s total post-grant proceedings, which take place after a patent has been granted and generally challenge a patent’s validity. One wonders whether DOJ will even take note of this anticompetitive activity involving Apple Watches in its blunderbuss action on iPhones and the US smartphone market. Masimo itself is being roiled by a shareholder proxy fight over who controls the company. Masimo is a publicly-traded (Nasdaq) electronics company that is primarily focused on health devices, including smartwatches, and data software monitoring... Continue Reading