They’re Coming for Your [Electronic] Records, Doc!

By Darrell Pruitt DDS

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“Regardless whether you are a physician, dentist or optometrist, they are coming for your patients’ records, Doc.” Family Vision of Anderson Data Breach Leaks Social Security Numbers of Up to 62,631 Patients

On July 26, 2023, Family Vision of Anderson filed a notice of data breach with the Attorney General of Maine after a ransomware attack exposed confidential patient information to unauthorized access. In this notice, Family Vision explains that the incident resulted in an unauthorized party being able to access patients’ sensitive information, which includes their first and last names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, genders, health insurance information, and protected health information.

Upon completing its investigation, Family Vision began sending out data breach notification letters to all individuals whose information was affected by the recent data security incident.

JDSupra, July 28, 2023: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/family-vision-of-anderson-data-breach-1534646/

MORE: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2023/07/23/hacked-peachtree-orthopedics-medical-practice/

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So what about cyber-insurance? … Not so fast.

“Twenty-one percent of organizations stated that ransomware is now specifically excluded from their policies, and those with cyber insurance saw changes in their last policy renewals: 74% saw increased premiums, 43% saw increased deductibles, 10% saw coverage benefits reduced.” From “Ransomware is being excluded from cyber insurance policies” 

-Security, May 24, 2023: https://www.securitymagazine.com/articles/99390-ransomware-is-being-excluded-from-cyber-insurancepolicies#:~:text=Twenty%2Done%20percent%20of%20organizations,10%25%20saw%20coverage%20benefits%20reduced.

So far, paper dental records still remain unaffected by ransomware, and that does not appear likely to change.

RELATED: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2011/01/24/on-cyber-insurance-for-doctors/

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Valuation of Accountable Care Organizations: Competitive Environment

By Health Capital Consultants, LLC

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As of the first quarter of 2022, 1,010 accountable care organizations (ACOs), comprising 1,760 private and public ACO contracts that covered 32 million beneficiaries, operated across the U.S. And, the majority of these ACOs were physician-led (41%), rather than hospital-led (26%) or jointly-led (27%) ACOs.

CITE: https://www.r2library.com/Resource

While the number of ACOs have steadily increased over the past several years, ACO growth has slowed, and even slightly decreased, in the past couple of years; this may be explained by shifts in federal government programs that are pushing all ACOs to take on downside risk at a faster pace. (Read more…) 

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