Becker's Spine Review

52 HEALTHCARE NEWS Patient data from EHR vendors found for sale online By Jackie Drees G oogle Chrome and Mozilla Fire- fox browser extensions were used to extract and sell users' personal information from more than 50 companies, including EHR providers DrChrono and Kareo, according to the Washington Post. Washington Post technology columnist Geof- frey Fowler and independent cybersecurity re- searcher Sam Jadali examined the cybersecu- rity leak. In Mr. Jadali's report "DataSpii: e catastrophic data leak via browser extensions," he noted six Chrome and Firefox browser extensions that shared users' data with mar- keting intelligence service Nacho Analytics, which offered access to website data for $49 a month, according to the report. Collectively, the six browser extensions gathered data from more than 4 million users. e names of the browser extensions are Hover Zoom, SpeakIt!, SuperZoom, SaveFrom.net Helper, FairShare Unlock and PanelMeasurement. DrChrono, an EHR vendor, and Kareo, an EHR management soware, were listed among the companies whose users' data was exposed on Nacho Analytics' website. From DrChrono, Mr. Fowler and Mr. Jadali found information including patient names, physician names and medications listed. Kareo information ex- posed were patient names. Kareo told the Post it is working to remove names from its website page data, according to the report. Since notifying Google and Mozilla of the cybersecurity leak, Google remotely deacti- vated seven browser extensions and Mozilla deactivated two, the Post reports. Mozilla also deactivated a browser extension in February. A few days aer the browser extensions were shut down, Nacho Analytics posted a state- ment to its website that it experienced a "per- manent" data outage and it is no longer accept- ing new clients, according to the report. n Florida hospital attributes spike in lawsuits against patients to EHR conversion By Ayla Ellison B ayfront Health St. Petersburg (Fla.) sued more patients after switching from a nonprofit to a for-profit organi- zation. Officials attributed the increase in lawsuits to an EHR conversion and other factors, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Bayfront Health St. Petersburg was an independent, nonprofit organization before it was sold to Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates in 2013, which was acquired by Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems. The hospi- tal began suing more patients to collect past-due bills after being acquired by a for-profit company, according to the Tam- pa Bay Times. In 2015, the hospital sued 528 patients in Pinellas County (Fla.) civil and small claims court to collect payment. That number jumped to more than 700 lawsuits in 2016 and 2017 before dipping to 650 cases last year. The hospital has sued more than 730 patients so far this year, according to the report. A hospital spokesperson told the Tampa Bay Times that there was a lag in processing patient accounts in 2018 due to an EHR conversion in 2017. The conversion led to what "looks like an increase" in the number of cases filed in the first half of 2019, according to the report. An increase in patient financial responsibility due to health plans with high deductibles and copayments also contributed to lawsuits being filed, the spokesperson told the Tampa Bay Times. n Patient waited 20 hours to receive urgent test, surgery at Pennsylvania hospital By Anne-Marie Kommers A patient ill with a condition that can cause loss of a testicle had to wait nearly a day to under- go testing and surgery at Penn State Milton S. Hershey (Pa.) Medical Center, according to PennLive. com. The patient arrived at the medical center Feb. 14, 2019, with severe pain in his back, side and scrotum, according to a Pennsylvania Department of Health report. A physician recommended an ultrasound test to see if the patient had testicular torsion, a condition that requires quick surgery to avoid loss of a testicle and infertility. Yet the physician did not indicate the ul- trasound's urgency on the electronic order. The ultrasound was not performed until the next day, about 20 hours after the patient came to the medical center. The patient underwent surgery two hours af- ter the ultrasound, at which point his testicle was re- moved. The state health department has faulted the medical center for the incident. The medical center must im- plement a correction plan to improve future responses to urgent patient care. Penn State Health did not respond to Becker's request for comment. n 150 SPINE AND ORTHOPEDIC SURGEONS AND PAIN MANAGEMENT PHYSICIAN SPEAKERS, OVER 250 SPEAKERS TOTAL

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