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☆ ‘We’re hemorrhaging money’: US health clinics try to stay open after unprecedented cyberattack
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-09 | by ( Sean Lyngaas | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —For more than two weeks, a cyberattack has disrupted business at health care providers across the United States, forcing small clinics to scramble to stay in business and exposing the fragility of the billing system that underpins American health care. It prevented some insurance payments on prescription drugs from processing, leaving many care providers effectively footing the bill without reimbursement. Health care groups have pleaded with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to offer medical practices a financial lifeline. A week ago, Change Healthcare announced plans for a temporary loan program to get money flowing to health care providers affected by the outage. Tyler Mason, a spokesperson for Change Healthcare, declined to comment when asked if the company had paid off the hackers.

Persons: ”, Catherine Reinheimer, Mel Davies, ” Jesse Ehrenfeld, Reinheimer, Richard Pollack, Carter Groome, ” Groome, Tyler Mason, ALPHV, ” Ari Redbord, Joshua Corman, Corman, “ Organizations: CNN, Change Healthcare, Health, Department of Health, Human Services, Oregon Oncology, Healthcare, American Medical Association, US, Medical Group Management Association, Community Oncology Alliance, American Hospital Association, Justice Department, ALPHV, Labs Locations: United States, Philadelphia, UnitedHealth, Oregon

The ramifications of a cyberattack on a critical health care technology company are still being felt across the U.S. nearly two weeks later. Change Healthcare has acknowledged the hack, which reportedly affected billing and care authorization portals. “Our experts are working to address the matter, and we are working closely with law enforcement and leading third-party consultants such as Mandiant and Palo Alto Networks on this attack against Change Healthcare’s systems,” Change Healthcare said. “On Feb. 21, 2024, we discovered a threat actor gained access to one of our Change Healthcare environments,” Change Healthcare said. A spokesperson affiliated with Change Healthcare declined to answer whether a ransom has been paid, according to Wired.

Persons: paychecks, Chuck Schumer, Jesse Ehrenfeld, Rick Pollack, “, ”, Schumer, ” Schumer, Pollack Organizations: Healthcare, Palo Alto Networks, New, American Medical Association, Department of Health, Human Services, American Hospital Association, HHS, AHA, UnitedHealth Group, The Washington Post, Justice Department, Health, Medicare, Medicaid Services, Wired, Change Healthcare Locations: U.S, Palo, New York, Optum

☆ Outages from Change Healthcare cyberattack causing financial 'mess' for doctors
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Ashley Capoot | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Small private practices and health-care providers are facing mounting financial pressures as crucial reimbursement systems remain down for the ninth day, following the cyberattack on Change Healthcare. Change Healthcare offers tools for payment and revenue cycle management that help facilitate transactions between providers and most major insurance companies. As of Thursday, Change Healthcare has not shared any updates about when it expects its systems to be back online. Change Healthcare on Thursday said that ransomware group Blackcat is behind the attack. He said it's not clear whether Change Healthcare will take on the responsibility of processing all the claims or if he'll need to hire additional staff to help.

Persons: Purvi, hasn't, Parikh, Kiranjit, immunologist, Dan Inder Sraow, it's, Sraow, Dr, Jesse Ehrenfeld, Ehrenfeld, Ravi Parikh Organizations: Healthcare, Change Healthcare, UnitedHealth Group, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, CNBC, U.S . Department of Justice, Google, Palo Alto Networks, Kiranjit Khalsa, Khalsa, American Medical Association, UnitedHealth, DOJ, Wall Locations: New York City, Scottsdale , Arizona, Phoenix , Arizona, U.S

☆ ChatGPT is particularly useful for people in these 3 industries, says OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-17 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

But the popular chatbot is particularly useful for workers in three specific industries, according to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. It's massively deployed and at scaled usage, at this point," Altman said during a recent episode of "Unconfuse Me," a podcast hosted by Bill Gates. Altman, whose company makes ChatGPT, made a point of noting that today's AI systems "certainly can't do [those] jobs" for you. CodingChatGPT can help programmers finish their work as much as three times faster than usual, Altman said. Some educators have worried that tools like ChatGPT could make it easier for students to cheat on assignments.

Persons: ChatGPT, Sam Altman, Altman, Bill Gates, OpenAI, Coders, coders, Gates, Dr, Tovah Klein, Healthcare OpenAI's chatbot, Jesse Ehrenfeld Organizations: Healthcare, Stanford, University of California, Educational, AIs, ASU, GSV, Barnard College, CNBC, American Medical Association Locations: Berkeley, San Diego

☆ Doctors Wrestle With A.I. in Patient Care, Citing Lax Oversight
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-30 | by ( Christina Jewett | More About Christina Jewett | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

spokesman, said the agency’s staff members review thousands of pages before clearing A.I. oversight right in medicine, a task that involves several agencies, is critical, said Dr. Ehrenfeld, the A.M.A. in deadly plane crashes to warn about the perils of automated safety systems overriding a pilot’s — or a doctor’s — judgment. He is concerned that doctors might encounter a similar use of A.I. is there should be an obvious place to start,” Dr. Ehrenfeld said.

Persons: James McKinney, ”, Ehrenfeld, weren’t

In Florida, Senate Bill 254, enacted in May, banned gender-affirming care for minors but also created less-noticed barriers for adult care. The state laws largely intervene to stop gender-affirming medical care around adolescence: treatments such as puberty blockers, hormones and later, in rare cases, surgery. Medical consensus favors gender-affirming care as essential and sometimes life-saving, after careful consideration by multiple providers. But he also said gender-affirming medical treatments were extreme. Colorado has not enacted restrictions on gender-affirming care.

Persons: Marci Bowers, Jesse Ehrenfeld, you've, Bill, Rylee Brock, Gary Click, Boston Children's, Thomas Satterwhite, Satterwhite, Joseph Knoll, Syvonne Carter, Daniel Trotta, Donna Bryson, Suzanne Goldenberg Organizations: World Professional Association for Transgender Health, American Medical Association, Endocrine Society, American Academy of Pediatrics, Ohio House, FBI, U.S . Department of Homeland Security, Boston Children's Hospital, Multispecialty, Boston, Reuters, Fenway Institute, Boston Police Department, Massachusetts State Police, Colorado Children's Hospital, Colorado, Spektrum, 26Health, Thomson Locations: Massachusetts, United States, Florida, Champaign , Illinois, Omaha, Nebraska, Ohio, Boston, Texas, Colorado, Colorado , Illinois, New York, California, San Francisco, Orlando, Melbourne, Plume

“And the pulse oximeter is used from any age to geriatrics,” he said. The US Food and Drug Administration is mulling over next steps for the regulation of pulse oximeter devices, which may give less accurate readings for people of color. A panel of its Medical Devices Advisory Committee met in November to review clinical data on the issue. “I think of the pulse oximeter reading in the same way. Of course this can be dangerous.”Ultimately, the pulse oximeter can estimate the amount of oxygen a person has in their blood without the need for a blood sample.

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