...expected from patients affected by the theft of PHI and PII [TTA 28 Mar]. It’ll be a busy spring and summer for UHG’s legal department. Hinge Health cuts 10% of staff. Reasons given were the standard tropes of ‘long-term sustainable business’, ‘accelerate our path to profitability, speed up decision making, and better focus our investments’ plus ‘realign our organization’. Their employee group is estimated at 1,700 on LinkedIn, making this about 170 staff released in various functions including engineers. The company is preparing for an IPO, which may not be this year, since they claim to have $400 million in... Continue Reading
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Opinion: Further thoughts on Teladoc, Amwell, and the future of telehealth–what happens next?
...was suspect even at the time. The deal that Gorevic and 7WireVentures’ Glen Tullman and Livongo CEO Zane Burke concocted was ‘Grand Theft Auto’–for Livongo and their leadership, especially if they sold their Teladoc shares. It was never a merger of equals nor was it additive in value. Teladoc then made multiple, continuing transitioning and management errors, including not retaining Livongo executives, which have been well documented. And again–where was the board on this? Where are the analysts? They seem to accept a storyline that ‘all is OK’ for 2024 now that Gorevic is gone. But standing pat on the... Continue Reading
Why is the US DOJ filing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple–on monopolizing the smartphone market?
...charges, there’s nothing about how Apple has essentially stolen features from other developers such as AliveCor and Masimo as found in other Federal courts. That IP theft is outside of antitrust and being litigated in other courts. Much of the heated commentary has to do with the Apple Brand Promise and how they deliver apps. Apple is an integrator and people like the ‘walled garden’. The phone ‘just works’. Quoting Alex Tabarrok in Marginal Revolution, Apple is a gatekeeper that promises its users greater security, privacy, usability, and reliability. Users trade off control for a seamless experience and it delivers.... Continue Reading
BlackCat is back, claims theft of 6TB of Change Healthcare data
...numbers, email addresses, and more) active U.S. military/navy personnel PII data Tyler Mason, UnitedHealth Group VP, had earlier stated to Bleeping Computer that 90% of the 70,000+ affected pharmacies switched to new electronic claims procedures to avoid the Change Healthcare issues. While this cybertheft appears breathtaking in its scope and perfect revenge as a “dish best eaten cold” for the December takedown of their websites, the amount and type of data in the exploit may be exaggerated for purposes of negotiating a rich settlement. As of today, BlackCat has not offered a number for ransom. This theft may be worth... Continue Reading
Change Healthcare cyberattack persists–is the BlackCat gang back and using LockBit malware? BlackCat taking credit. (update 28 Feb #2)
...for taking down Change’s systems nor is there any report of a ransom demand. It is perhaps too early to determine if there has been any data theft. Nor are there reports of other healthcare or other organizations being attacked through the ScreenConnect flaw. Optum has a page detailing the status of Change Healthcare’s individual systems here. Optum has a statement that has remained nearly the same on issues with connectivity since last Wednesday.* This Editor’s experience of the page is that it needs refreshing to view the full version. Regarding the systems, they are a long list to scroll... Continue Reading
2023’s global cyberattack disaster: healthcare #3 in weekly attacks, 10% of organizations ransomwared–report
...Rather than being content with encrypting data and demanding bitcoin for its release, the hyper version is now data theft followed by extortion campaigns threatening public disclosure of the stolen data, such as by MOVEit and GoAnywhere. Not mentioned here is another vector–business associates and vendors, using ‘social engineering’ tactics to steal passwords and other secure information to gain access into the larger system [TTA 24 Jan] 10% of global organizations were targeted by a ransomware attack, up 3 percentage points from 2022 Healthcare again was above average, #3 with 12% of organizations experiencing attacks. Government/military was #2 with 16%... Continue Reading
Breaking: ban on sale of Apple Watches 9 and Ultra 2 stayed by federal appeals court Wed 27 December
...from being morally and legally incorrect, this kind of behaviour also undermines the general population’s trust in big business & ethics. Disappointing from a company of this stature… Donna Cusano To me, Apple's behavior is consistently wrong in this regard. They should be fostering partnerships with companies with technologies they can incorporate into other Apple products.They used to have developer conferences to promote compatibility. There is a businesslike and honorable way to do things, and then there is IP theft. It seems like the ITC and USPTAB seem to wind up on opposite sides though, in tracking these two stories.... Continue Reading
Signs of the next phase in 2024? Veradigm CEO, CFO booted (updated); SmileDirectClub fails, TeleDentists steps up; FruitStreet sues Sharecare for $25M; Walgreens’ former CEO Roz Brewer’s platinum parachute
...should be a memorial to Teladoc-Livongo. Sorry, Teladoc.) Increased Federal and state regulation of normal business processes. (FTC’s sudden prominence adding to the usual DOJ antitrust pile-on and senatorial posturing) A general cleansing of the cant and hype infecting a sector. (Look to the conferences and press releases for changes in language.) In this Editor’s observation, another latter-stage sign is when C-levels don’t survive management failures and are sent packing. Another is seeing a small company sue a larger one over failed partnerships, usually involving IP or program design theft. This past week had examples of these two, plus examples... Continue Reading
Another turkey: potential 9M patients affected by medical transcription vendor data breach
...with transcription providers, having been affected by Nuance Communications’ hack earlier this year by one of their vendors–the Progress Software MOVEit file transfer protocol (FTP) theft traced back to ransomwareistes CLOP [TTA 3 Aug]. Personal health information stolen for all included name, date of birth, address, medical record number, hospital account number, admission diagnosis, and date(s) and time(s) of service. While the records didn’t contain financial information, some patients may have had breaches of their Social Security numbers, insurance information and clinical information from medical transcription files, such as laboratory and diagnostic testing results, medications, the name of the treatment... Continue Reading
Legal roundup: Dorsata sues athenahealth, provider group on trade secret theft, Nevada terms Friday Health Plans
Dorsata, a women’s health-focused EHR, filed a lawsuit on 19 July against athenahealth and provider group Unified Women’s Healthcare. The suit has nine counts that allege unfair and deceptive acts and practices, breach of oral contract, breach of fiduciary duty, common law fraud, unjust enrichment, theft of trade secrets, tortious interference with current customers, breach of nondisclosure agreement, and commercial disparagement. A joint venture that went very sideways. After Unified purchased Women’s Health USA in 2021, an existing customer of Dorsata, athenahealth approached Dorsata to create a joint solution to pitch to Unified. According to Dorsata, which signed a non-disclosure... Continue Reading
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