Becker's Hospital Review

79 CIO / HEALTH IT Amazon, CVS are spending big in healthcare — health systems must respond By Laura Dyrda N ontraditional healthcare companies are digging deeper into healthcare delivery with acquisitions and partnerships. Health systems have to keep an eye on the disrupters and re- spond in the best way possible for patient care. Amazon entered into an agreement to acquire One Medical, a virtual and in-person primary care platform, for $3.9 billion earlier this year. CVS Health shortly thereaer succeeded in signing an agreement to acquire home health company Signify Health for $8 billion. Walmart, Google and more continue to make partnerships and acquisitions strengthening healthcare and technology offerings. Even though Amazon recently announced it would shutter its virtual care service Amazon Care, the initiative was hardly a failure. Amazon typically experiments a lot when entering a new arena to see what sticks and then consolidates under one leader. In healthcare, that leader is Neil Lindsay. He sent the email out to Amazon Health Services employees addressing Amazon Care's closing and noted the company learned from the initiative. "Amazon is a technology company and a learning company. ey learn from what they do. If something is not meeting expectations, they'll stop doing it," said Sara Vaezy, executive vice president and chief strategy and digital officer at Renton, Wash.-based Providence. "Everything is done in an iterative fashion. A lot of Amazon Care, once they finalize the acquisition of One Medical, will become some- what redundant." One Medical has an EHR, employer relationships, clinicians, and the hybrid model of physical and virtual assets already built into the busi- ness model. Health systems are at various stages of digital transformation and balancing the virtual and in-person care continuum. Disruptors like Amazon, CVS Health and Walmart dipping further into healthcare delivery could capture patients from systems late to adopt virtual care. Providence is not one of those systems. "We've been working on virtual care for a while. For us, Amazon's acquisition of One Medical doesn't change anything," Ms. Vaezy said. "We've been in a market that has been earlier in these developments, a market where disruption is happening quite a bit by the 'pay-viders' of the world and nontraditional disruptors like Amazon. We've been anticipating virtual care to pick up steam for several years." e nontraditional disruptors entering the healthcare space have cre- ated different market dynamics and service fragmentation, as every company is trying to carve out their own unique space to own aspects of the patient journey. 3 Iranian nationals charged in thwarted cyberattack on Boston Children's Hospital By Giles Bruce T he U.S. government has charged three Iranian nationals with a scheme to commit ransomware attacks on healthcare facilities and other organizations, including a thwarted attack on Boston Children's Hospital, the Justice Department said Sept. 14. Mansour Ahmadi, 34; Ahmad Khatibi Aghda, 45; and Amir Hossein Nickaein Ravari, 30, are alleged to have gained unauthorized access to the computer systems of hundreds of victims in countries such as the U.S., U.K., Israel and Iran over nearly two years, denying access to the networks unless ransom payments were made, according to the indictment. They were allegedly involved in a thwarted 2021 attack on Boston Children's Hospital, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a video statement. "No form of cyberattack is acceptable, but ransomware attacks that target critical infrastructure services, such as healthcare facilities and government agencies, are a threat to our national security," U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger, of the District of New Jersey, said in an agency news release. "Hackers like these defendants go to great lengths to keep their identities secret, but there is always a digital trail. And we will find it." Mr. Ahmadi, Mr. Khatibi and Mr. Nickaein, all residents of Iran, are each charged with one count of conspiring to commit computer fraud and related activity in connection with computers; one count of intentionally damaging a protected computer; and one count of transmitting a demand in relation to damaging a protected computer. Mr. Ahmadi is charged with an additional count of intentionally damaging a protected computer. All three men remain at large abroad. n Disruptors like Amazon, CVS Health and Walmart dipping further into healthcare delivery could capture patients from systems late to adopt virtual care.

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