On May 1, over two months since Change Healthcare was hacked leading to significant access and billing issues across the country, the CEO of Change Healthcare’s parent company UnitedHealth Group (UHG), testified before a Senate Committee about the incident.
In my opinion, looking back, the best and most protected and most secure and most complete medical record was the "paper" medical chart containing written and dictated documents of a patient's medical care. Copies of reports were mailed to referring physicians and vice-versa. The patients had easy access to the charts. The Medical Records staff were always there if any questions. I found it incredibly easier and faster to review a patient's medical history from such charts. What has been lost for gains in billing and other exploitative entrepreneurial add-ons describes the general condition of healthcare today...
I do not know what or who Empire Mental Health Support is or why they are writing this letter. Maybe knowing more about that would help me understand it better.
The author stated: "Right now, it looks like connecting and simplifying this much of the healthcare system made it all too easy for cyber criminals to breach and easier for this PBM to profit off of patients."
My reaction to that statement is that "Right now" it appears to be a rank speculation based on unproven assumptions and a huge unwarranted jump to a conclusion. It was not necessary to make a groundless accusation about fault in the Health carriers IT system in order to make the common sense statement that there should be an investigation as to whether there was such fault. Hacks even occur with the US government. In this electronic age, because we all choose to expose what we have a right to keep private, there are going to be hacks. It is not just a possibility. It is a certainty. The criminals of today are highly technically skilled and intelligent; far more so than at any time in human history. Blaming the corporations' practices might end up being warranted, but "right now" it is premature to villainize Changed Healthcare, UnitedHealth group, or Optum RX. I am one of the last people to assert moral integrity on the part of an insurer, but still, we must be fair.
In my opinion, looking back, the best and most protected and most secure and most complete medical record was the "paper" medical chart containing written and dictated documents of a patient's medical care. Copies of reports were mailed to referring physicians and vice-versa. The patients had easy access to the charts. The Medical Records staff were always there if any questions. I found it incredibly easier and faster to review a patient's medical history from such charts. What has been lost for gains in billing and other exploitative entrepreneurial add-ons describes the general condition of healthcare today...
I do not know what or who Empire Mental Health Support is or why they are writing this letter. Maybe knowing more about that would help me understand it better.
The author stated: "Right now, it looks like connecting and simplifying this much of the healthcare system made it all too easy for cyber criminals to breach and easier for this PBM to profit off of patients."
My reaction to that statement is that "Right now" it appears to be a rank speculation based on unproven assumptions and a huge unwarranted jump to a conclusion. It was not necessary to make a groundless accusation about fault in the Health carriers IT system in order to make the common sense statement that there should be an investigation as to whether there was such fault. Hacks even occur with the US government. In this electronic age, because we all choose to expose what we have a right to keep private, there are going to be hacks. It is not just a possibility. It is a certainty. The criminals of today are highly technically skilled and intelligent; far more so than at any time in human history. Blaming the corporations' practices might end up being warranted, but "right now" it is premature to villainize Changed Healthcare, UnitedHealth group, or Optum RX. I am one of the last people to assert moral integrity on the part of an insurer, but still, we must be fair.