In news other than Walgreens and Optum/Change Healthcare–with more to come out of HIMSS in Orlando this week… The DOD/VA Cerner EHR went live on Saturday 9 March in the Capt. James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (Lovell FHCC), right on scheduled time. This EHR which will serve both active duty service members in the Military Health System (MHS) and veterans through the VA is being watched closely. While MHS Genesis has been rolled out in most military health facilities in the US and overseas, the VA’s has stalled at five. As of now, Lovell is the only VA... Continue Reading
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Is BlackCat/ALPHV faking its own ‘death’? (updated) HHS and CMS come to Change affected providers’ assistance with ‘flexibilities’
...DDoS attack on 7 March and was down for two days thru 8 March. It is now fully up and running with our links working. Multiple US Government websites went down Thursday evening 7 March based on news reports: Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), US Secret Service and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The timing based on the State of the Union address to Congress is, well, interesting. Daily Express Later reports announced restoration later in evening. Cyberincidents are not exactly unknown on government websites.... Continue Reading
Reality Bites Again: UHG being probed by DOJ on antitrust, One Medical layoffs “not related” to Amazon, the psychological effects of cyberattacks
...they are examining with a microscope UHG’s $3.3 billion bid for home health provider Amedisys that started in August 2023 and has not moved forward. DOJ has a long memory, a Paul Bunyan-sized ax to grind, and doesn’t like losing. One wonders if now UHG has buyer’s remorse after fighting for two years to buy Change. In the Alternate Reality Department, One Medical CEO Trent Green insisted that their reorganization and layoffs were unrelated to their acquisition by Amazon. Those of us who are a little less credulous know that with 98% of acquisitions, staff are laid off. Overlapping areas... Continue Reading
Facing Future: Walgreens CEO moves company into strategic review–will he get WBA board alignment?
Walgreens’ CEO Wentworth positions for turnaround. “This is not a 12-month turnaround story” said Mr. Wentworth at the TD Cowen healthcare investor conference. To this Editor, the public honesty and lack of cant (a/k/a “PR Speak”) was refreshing. His unobvious caveat though was aligning the board around what he and the new executive team–very few if any carryovers from the prior regime–see as the direction of the company and asset management. The WBA board is led by executive chairman Stefano Pessina, who has a vested interest in a turnaround. He is the lead individual shareholder of WBA with apparently 10%... Continue Reading
BlackCat is back, claims theft of 6TB of Change Healthcare data
What’s known as of Thursday 29 February (Leap Day) about the Change Healthcare cyberattack: Change and Optum have attributed it to BlackCat/ALPHV as of today. From Becker’s HealthIT: “Change Healthcare can confirm we are experiencing a cybersecurity issue perpetrated by a cybercrime threat actor who has represented itself to us as ALPHV/Blackcat,” an Optum spokesperson emailed Becker’s on Feb. 29. “We are actively working to understand the impact to members, patients and customers.” BlackCat is claiming it stole 6 terabytes (TB) of data in the breach. From Bleeping Computer 28 Feb: BlackCat said that they allegedly stole 6TB of data... Continue Reading
Breaking: VillageMD exiting Illinois clinics–in its home state–as closures top 80 locations
...attached to a Walgreens store. The clinics will close on 19 April. The irony is that VillageMD is headquartered in Chicago. In October, Walgreens announced that 60 Village Medical clinics would close. The Florida closings announced last week were in two phases, 14 and 38, a total of 52. With Illinois, the total would be 58. However, Crain’s Chicago Business stated late on Wednesday in its article that 12 Massachusetts locations closed in February. Last month, three locations in New Hampshire and all 12 Indiana clinics closed, bringing the total to 85. This story will be updated as it develops.... Continue Reading
Roundup: Walgreens’ new chief legal officer; Digital Health Collaborative launched; fundings/M&A defrosting for b.well, R1 RCM, Abridge, Reveleer; Veradigm likely delists, buys ScienceIO–mystery? (updated)
Walgreens’ CEO Wentworth’s final add to Executive Committee named. Lanesha Minnix was announced on Monday as the company’s new global chief legal officer and EVP, effective 15 April. She comes from being general counsel and corporate secretary for Ecolab, a Fortune 500 water, hygiene and infection prevention company. As chief legal officer, she will oversee Walgreens’ global legal, compliance, corporate governance and corporate security functions. Ms. Minnix succeeds Danielle Gray, who left in January to “pursue an external opportunity” (Reuters). Yahoo Finance from PR Newswire A new organization to ‘advance digital health adoption’ launched last week. The Digital Health Collaborative,... Continue Reading
Change Healthcare cyberattack persists–is the BlackCat gang back and using LockBit malware? BlackCat taking credit. (update 28 Feb #2)
...through and your Editor lost count after 100. Most have red Xs by them. Some systems are checked green. Change is also holding Zoom calls to update partners. Reuters reported that Alphabet’s cybersecurity unit Mandiant is in charge of investigating the attack. Change Healthcare processes 15 billion healthcare claims annually. This attack seems to have hit their pharmacy software the hardest. These software tools are used to verify patient eligibility for specific medication and also their insurance coverage. The outage not only covers the big chains like CVS and Walgreens, but also Tricare and the Military Health System (MHS) globally.... Continue Reading
Weekend reading: AI cybersecurity tools no panacea, reality v. illusion in healthcare AI, RPM in transitioning to hospital-at-home, Korean study on older adult health tech usage
A potpourri of current articles. Hope you don’t feel like Pepper the Robot after you read them! AI won’t boost cybersecurity, that’s cutting corners (Cybernews) AI tools that make cybersecurity more effective and faster in response are increasingly available. They are estimated in a Techopedia article rounding up multiple studies to be a global market of over $133 billion by 2030. IBM claims that organizations with AI cybersecurity took 100 days less to identify and contain data breaches. Yet AI can also leave organizations more vulnerable to cyberattack. Hackers and ransomwareistes have been using AI for years in phishing and... Continue Reading
Breaking: Walgreens’ VillageMD shutting in Florida; Change Healthcare system websites cyberattacked (updated 23 Feb)
The New Reality Strikes Again. Walgreens is closing all VillageMD locations in Florida. In addition to the 14 already closed, an additional 38 will be shuttered on 15 March for a total of 52. These are all co-located and attached to Walgreens locations (left). Florida was a major expansion market for co-located clinics and its third largest market following Texas and Arizona) according to a report by investment analyst Jefferies. In October, Walgreens announced the closure of 60 Village Medical locations in ‘non-strategic locations’. In January, CEO Tim Wentworth confirmed that about half of those locations were already closed. Doing... Continue Reading
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