Becker's ASC Review

52 HEALTHCARE NEWS Hospitals take action to avoid ransomware attacks, including pre-emptive email shut down By Laura Dyrda H ospitals across the U.S. are taking pre-emptive steps to avoid cyberat- tacks aer the FBI issued a warning of increased hacking activity on Oct. 28. St. Lawrence Health System in upstate New York and Klamath Falls, Ore.-based Sky Lakes Medical Center reported ransomware attacks on Oct. 27. e federal government said six hospitals were hit within a 24-hour timeframe between Oct. 26 and Oct. 27, but did not reveal the names of the hospitals. "My initial thought was that ransomware players are getting much craier and that the [Internet of ings] ransomware threat in healthcare is more serious than we think," Zafar Chaudry, MD, senior vice president and CIO of Seattle Children's, told Becker's. "We at Seattle Children's cannot take our eyes off the ever-evolving cybersecurity threats out there. Invest- ments in preventative tools, education and awareness must continue and many cases accelerate. It's too easy to get distracted in healthcare with the swirl of challenges we face day in, day out." Hospitals and health systems across the U.S. are on heightened alert and some are taking new action. Ogdensburg, N.Y.-based Clax- ton-Hepburn Medical Center shut down its email to prevent cyberattacks, according to a local 7 News report. e hospital remains operational and has not reduced patient services. Online patient portals and the hos- pital's website are still operating, according to the report. Morrisville, Vt.-based Copley Hospital is also on high alert this week after neigh- boring UVM Medical Center in Burling- ton experienced a cybersecurity incident that required shutting down its online systems on Oct. 29. According to the VT Digger, Copley is automatically backing up patient information every night and has back-up information not connected to its online systems. UnityPoint Health in West Des Moines, Iowa, is heeding the warning as well. "We have made significant investments in measures to detect, stop and prevent cybersecurity threats, and our systems are backed up on a regular basis," said Christine Zrostlik, senior media relations specialist at UnityPoint Health, in response to a Becker's inquiry about any changes due to the FBI warning. "Our team members receive ex- tensive training and we continually evaluate and modify our practices to enhance the security and privacy of our information." Dr. Chaudry said Seattle Children's has preventative tools, education and aware- ness as well as constant monitoring for cyberthreats. "We've gone cloud native with our tools, added in artificial intelligence capability to harness the power of data, and moved to single agent protection on all hardware," he said. In Dayton, Ohio, System Vice President and CIO of Premier Health Gary Ginter was surprised about the heightened aware- ness the ransomware attacks on hospitals received because they have become a common occurrence. However, he said the health system hasn't changed its approach to cybersecurity and continues to focus on the goal of making sure protections are in place and employees are educated about mitigat- ing threats. "e exposure of these events did allow us an opportunity to reinforce education to our employees on their role in helping prevent these types of attacks," he said. n CMS fines 2,545 hospitals for high readmissions: 5 things to know By Ayla Ellison I n fiscal year 2021, CMS will penalize 2,545 hospitals for having too many Medicare patients readmitted within 30 days, according to federal data cited by Kaiser Health News. This is the ninth year of the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program. To determine penalties for fiscal 2021, CMS examined hospitals' 30-day readmis- sion rates for patients who had originally been treated for the following condi- tions: heart failure, heart attack, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hip or knee replacement, and coronary artery bypass graft surgery. CMS used patient data from July 2016 through June 2019 to determine the penalties. The agency compared each hospital's reported readmission rate to national averages for each of the conditions to determine the penalties. Here are five takeaways from the Nov. 2 Kaiser Health News analysis: 1. Eighty-three percent of the 3,080 hospitals evaluated received a penalty. 2. CMS will cut payments to the penalized hospitals by as much as 3 percent for each Medicare case during fiscal 2021, which runs Oct. 1, 2020, through September 2021. 3. Thirty-nine hospitals were hit with the maximum penalty for fiscal 2021, down from 56 hospitals in fiscal 2020. 4. The average penalty will be a 0.69 percent payment cut for each Medicare patient. 5. Of the 3,080 hospitals evaluated, 613 will receive a penalty of 1 percent or more. n

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