Cybersecurity is probably at the top of the list for most hearing care professionals (HCPs) when thinking about how to ensure the success of their practices and ensure that their clients receive the best hearing care possible. It probably won't even come to mind. But that doesn't mean it's not an important component of effective care. The U.S. government and major corporations must do more to protect patient data and prevent cyberattacks from shutting down medical facilities.
big incident
In February, a cyberattack on medical claims processing company Change Healthcare affected numerous healthcare workers across the country, including hearing healthcare workers. Fortunately, no medical facilities were shut down as a result of this cyberattack. But Change Healthcare was forced to shut down its systems, leaving hospitals and other medical facilities unable to pay their vendors and employees.
This ransomware attack was a reminder of how dependent we are on our digital systems, and how problematic it can be to suddenly lose access to those systems.
Shortly after the cyber attack against Change Healthcare occurred, I spoke with an audiologist in New York whose practice was affected. She and her colleagues continued to see patients, but all insurance claims had to be submitted manually, which slowed the claims process. In addition to creating a huge amount of paperwork for the billing department and taking much longer to complete than digital billing, delays were also a concern from a cash flow perspective.
More information: CMS delivery providers affected by changes to support cyberattacks
ongoing issues
Although several months have passed since then, not all of the problems caused by the cyberattack have been resolved. She consulted the same audiologist and he said things were improving and her office was starting to catch up. The billing department now only has to manually enter some data, and payments are starting to come in for claims submitted months ago.
What annoyed her most was the fact that the situation was completely outside of her control. She says she hopes Change Healthcare learns from this experience and prevents it from happening in the future. However, this cyber attack is just one of many attacks that continue to occur.
morning Call
The cyber attack against Change Healthcare was widespread and affected the cash flow of so many companies that it attracted the attention of the public and the healthcare industry. This incident called attention to the seriousness of cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the healthcare sector and the need to strengthen safety measures, where many other incidents have fallen short.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a longtime advocate of strengthening cybersecurity in the healthcare sector, has introduced legislation that would help alleviate these problems and prevent such cyberattacks from occurring in the first place. The Health Care Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2024 provides that “If the need for a Medicare early payment program or prepayment program is due to a cybersecurity incident, the entity must meet the minimum cyber “It requires that security standards be met.” It is designed to improve cybersecurity at the vendor level by tying minimum cybersecurity requirements to government funding.
I hope this bill passes and can have a meaningful impact. And we look forward to more efforts to protect healthcare workers and their patients from the effects of cyberattacks.
— melanie hamilton basic
Original quote from this article: Hamilton-Basich M, focused on cybersecurity. Hearing review. 2024;31(5):06-07.
