Becker's Hospital Review

32 CIO / HEALTH IT Ransomware Damage Costs Expected to Reach $11.5B by 2019 By Julie Spitzer C ybersecurity Ventures estimated annual ransomware damages will cost the global economy $5 billion by the end of 2017 and will rise to nearly $11.5 billion in 2019. The Ransomware Damage Report, published by the cybersecuri- ty research and market intelligence company, notes this is a 15-fold increase from 2015, when ransomware cost companies around the world $325 million. While attackers often request ransoms in bitcoin, the percentage of businesses paying these demands to reclaim their stolen data is de- clining, even as total payout figures rise. The damage costs include downtime, lost productivity and post-attack disruption, as well as forensic investigation, restoration and deletion of hostage data and systems, harm to the company's reputation and increased employee training in response to the attack. The report also predicts ransomware will strike a business every 14 seconds by the end of 2019 — excluding attacks on individuals that oc- cur more frequently. This is why training employees and IT pros, Cyber Ventures argues, is the best defense. "Training employees how to recognize and defend against cyber- attacks is the most under spent sector of the cybersecurity industry — and yet it holds out the greatest hope for combating ransomware attacks," Steve Morgan, founder and CEO of Cybersecurity Ventures, wrote in the report. n Lawsuit: Epic's Software Double-Bills Medicare, Medicaid for Anesthesia Services By Ayla Ellison H ealth IT giant Verona, Wis.-based Epic has been hit with a False Claims Act lawsuit that alleges the company's soware double-bills Medicare and Medicaid for anesthesia services, resulting in the gov- ernment being overbilled by hundreds of mil- lions of dollars. e lawsuit, which was filed under the qui tam provision of the False Claims Act in 2015 and made public Nov. 2, alleges Epic's billing so- ware's default protocol is to charge for both the applicable base units for anesthesia provided on a procedure as well as the actual time taken for the procedure. is results in the provider being reimbursed twice for the base unit com- ponent, according to the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, Medicare adjusted its payment approach to anesthesia services in 2012 to require physicians to bill for the ac- tual time on a procedure instead of 15-minute blocks of time. e suit alleges Epic's soware allowed hospitals to set up their anesthesia billing modules to bill for 15-minute incre- ments in addition to the actual time anesthe- siologists spent on the procedure. e whistle-blower who filed the lawsuit, Geraldine Petrowski, worked at Raleigh, N.C.-based WakeMed Health from Sep- tember 2008 through June 2014. In her role as supervisor of physician's coding, Ms. Petrowski served as the hospital liaison for Epic's implementation of its soware at WakeMed Health. Ms. Petrowski claims she provided examples to Epic representatives illustrating the dou- ble-billing practice, and the company initially ignored her complaints. "It was only aer re- lator, Petrowski, reiterated her direction to fix this soware setting that [Epic] relented and fixed it only for the WakeMed Health facility," according to the lawsuit. e lawsuit alleges the unlawful billing proto- col has resulted "in the presentation of hun- dreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent bills for anesthesia services being submitted to Medicare and Medicaid as false claims." In a statement to Healthcare IT News, an Epic spokeswoman said, "e plaintiff 's assertions represent a fundamental misunderstanding of how claims soware works." e Department of Justice declined to intervene in the case, and the whistle-blower will move forward in the case without the government. n Athenahealth Names New CFO, Treasurer: 4 Things to Know By Kelly Gooch W atertown, Mass.-based athenahealth named Marc Levine an executive vice president as well as CFO and treasurer. Here are four things to know about Mr. Levine. 1. He will become an executive vice president Dec. 15 and his role as CFO and treasurer takes effect Jan. 2, according to the company. 2. In his role, Mr. Levine will take over for John "Jack" Kane, who will step down as interim CFO effective Jan. 2 and remain an athen- ahealth board member. 3. Previously, Mr. Levine was executive vice president and CFO of supply chain solutions provider JDA Software Group. 4. Mr. Levine also spent 25 years at Hewl- ett-Packard Co., where he served in roles such as senior vice president and corporate control- ler, senior vice president of finance and COO of the company's Enterprise Services Business segment, according to athenahealth. n

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