The attack by a ransomware group has sparked concern about health care revenues and providers’ ability to offer care.
PATRICK SISON|AP
Pages from the United Healthcare website are displayed on a computer screen in New York on Feb. 29, 2024.
The ramifications of a cyberattack on a critical health care technology company are still being felt across the U.S. nearly two weeks later.
Related: A Large US Health Care Tech Company Was Hacked
Recommended Videos

Powered by AnyClip

Health Care Is at the Top of Americans’ Financial Worries

Congressional Leaders Meet with Biden in Oval Office, Call It ‘Intense’ but ‘Productive’

Change Healthcare has acknowledged the hack, which reportedly affected billing and care authorization portals. It’s led to prescription backlogs and missed revenue for providers, posing potential threats to worker paychecks and even patient care.
“Our experts are working to address the matter, and we are working closely with law enforcement and leading third-party consultants such as Mandiant and Palo Alto Networks on this attack against Change Healthcare’s systems,” Change Healthcare said. “We are actively working to understand the impact to members, patients and customers.”
The attack has prompted high-level calls for action from the likes of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and leading medical organizations. The American Medical Association called on the Department of Health and Human Services to “use all its available authorities to ensure that physician practices can continue to function, and patients can continue to receive the care that they need.”
“This massive breach and its wide-ranging repercussions have hit physician practices across the country, risking patients’ access to their doctors and straining viability of medical practices themselves,” the AMA’s president, Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, said in a statement. “This is an immense crisis demanding immediate attention.”
Related: Hack Against Change Healthcare Creates Delays

Similarly, the American Hospital Association told HHS that hospitals and health systems may require “immediate federal support” amid the fallout, noting the vast reach of Change Healthcare’s systems and warning that a prolonged disruption “will negatively impact many hospitals’ ability to offer the full set of health care services to their communities.”
AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack called the cyberattack “the most serious incident of its kind leveled against a U.S. health care organization.”

What Is Change Healthcare?

Change Healthcare, which is owned by UnitedHealth Group, manages health care technology pipelines connected to tasks such as processing insurance claims and billing, reportedly handling 15 billion transactions annually.
As noted by The Washington Post, the Justice Department in a 2022 lawsuit cited United as stating that 50% of U.S. medical claims go through Change’s “electronic data interchange clearinghouse.”

What Happened?

“On Feb. 21, 2024, we discovered a threat actor gained access to one of our Change Healthcare environments,” Change Healthcare said. “Once we became aware of the outside threat, in the interest of protecting our partners and patients, we took immediate action to disconnect Change Healthcare’s systems to prevent further impact.”
Related: Why the U.S. Is an Outlier on COVID Boosters for Kids

The company has not provided a specific timeline for when services will be back online.
“Our systems remain offline because of our diligence, not because of compromise,” it said. “They will remain offline until we are certain we can turn them back on safely.”

What’s the Impact of the Health Care Hack?

Many physician practices have not been able to submit claims since Feb. 21, according to the AMA, and “a considerable proportion of revenue cycle processes have ground to a halt.” The group in a letter to HHS identified top concerns among practices since the incident, including the interruption of administrative and billing processes, practices having to take on “enormous” administrative burdens and significant data privacy fears.
The outage is costing some health care providers over $100 million a day, according to an estimate from First Health Advisory, a digital health risk assurance firm. Schumer, in a letter to the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, said Change Healthcare had suspended more than 100 services and that hospitals and other providers were facing adverse impacts on their financial solvency.

“Hospitals are struggling to process claims, bill patients, and receive electronic payments, leaving them financially vulnerable,” Schumer said. “Many hospitals are approaching a financial cliff where they will no longer be able to rely on their cash on hand.”
Related: Report: More Diversity Needed Among Health Care Board Members

Schumer asked CMS to make accelerated and advanced payments available for affected providers, akin to what was offered during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, a temporary funding assistance program for providers has been set up through Optum, which is also owned by UnitedHealth Group. But Pollack, the AHA president, sharply criticized the plan, saying it falls shy of “even a band-aid.”

Who Is Responsible for the Hack?

Change Healthcare said the group identified itself as ALPHV/BlackCat.
According to a report from Wired, the group of hackers recently received a $22 million transaction that looks like it could be a large ransom payment related to the attack. A spokesperson affiliated with Change Healthcare declined to answer whether a ransom has been paid, according to Wired.
In December, the Justice Department announced it had targeted ALPHV in a disruption campaign.
“In disrupting the BlackCat ransomware group, the Justice Department has once again hacked the hackers,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. “With a decryption tool provided by the FBI to hundreds of ransomware victims worldwide, businesses and schools were able to reopen, and health care and emergency services were able to come back online.”
Tags: health care

Ukraine's Military: Russian Forces Stopped Near Avdiivka, but Reinforcing Elsewhere

REUTERS
FILE PHOTO: Smoke rises above the area of Avdiivka town in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, as seen from Yasynuvata (Yasinovataya) in the Donetsk region, Russian-controlled Ukraine, October 13, 2023. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko/File Photo
(Reuters) - Ukraine's military said on Monday its forces had contained a Russian advance outside the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka captured last month, but Moscow's troops were regrouping in an area further south.
The capture of Avdiivka last month provided Russia with a security cushion for the regional centre of Donetsk 20 km (12 miles) to the east and prompted Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to pledge that Moscow's forces would make further advances.
Recommended Videos

Powered by AnyClip

Russia's Putin Warns NATO Not to Interfere in Ukraine
3
MORE: Places the U.S. Government Warns Not to Travel Right Now
Ukrainian military spokesperson Dmytro Lykhoviy, speaking on national television, acknowledged that Russian forces were in partial control of two more villages -- but their advance had been halted.
"At the same time, we are saying that in this hottest sector of the direct Russian assault, we are managing to stabilise the situation and the enemy's advance has been halted," he said.

The Latest Photos From Ukraine

View All 96 Images

Speaking to U.S.-funded Radio Liberty, Lykhoviy said Russian forces were focusing on an area further south, around the village of Novomykhailivka, where they were "transferring reinforcements from the depths of Russia".

Photos You Should See

View All 60 Images

The area had sustained 30 assaults on Sunday, compared to 20 near Avdiivka, the radio quoted him as saying.
"But our defence is holding," he said. "The enemy is expending tremendous efforts but making no headway at all."
An account of the fighting by the Russian defence ministry said Moscow's forces had "as a result of coordinated action continued to occupy more advantageous positions" near Avdiivka. It made no mention of the area near Novomykhailivka.
Reuters could not verify accounts from either side.
Russian forces have focused on securing control of eastern Ukraine in the two-year-old war after their initial attempt to advance on Kyiv failed.
The capture of Avdiivka after months of fighting was their biggest gain in nine months, though the front lines have undergone only limited movement in that time. A Ukrainian counteroffensive has made little headway.
Ukraine's Emergency Services reported that two firefighters had been killed near the eastern Ukrainian town of Kramatorsk -- north of Avdiivka -- when they came under Russian shelling while battling a blaze.

(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.
Tags: Ukraine, Russia, Europe

What to Know About Super Tuesday and Why It Matters

Super Tuesday is traditionally the biggest day nationwide for primary elections and caucuses before the actual Election Day in November
UNCREDITED
In this combination of photos, President Joe Biden speaks on Aug. 10, 2023, in Salt Lake City, left, and former President Donald Trump speaks on July 8, 2023, in Las Vegas, center, and Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, speaks on Feb. 18, 2024, in Columbia, S.C., right. (AP Photo)
WASHINGTON (AP) — It’s almost Super Tuesday when voters in 16 states and one territory will cast their ballots in the 2024 presidential primaries.
Here’s why the day matters — and why it looks a little different this year.

What is Super Tuesday?
It’s traditionally the biggest day nationwide for primary elections and caucuses before the actual Election Day in November. Until now, only one or two states have held primaries or caucuses on the same day.
READ: The 10 Oldest U.S. Presidents
This Tuesday, voters in 16 different states and one territory (Get it? “Super” Tuesday.) will be choosing who they want to run for president. Some states are also choosing who should run for governor or senator for their state, and some district attorneys, too.
Just as Thanksgiving is usually the fourth Thursday in November, Super Tuesday is almost always the first Tuesday in March.

Photos You Should See

View All 60 Images

What happens on Super Tuesday?
Democrats and Republicans vote on who they want to run for president and other offices. And then once those votes are tallied, delegates are awarded.
Delegates, by the way, are people chosen to represent their community at their political party’s presidential nominating convention. They are the ones who actually select the candidate to represent their party on the November ballot.
Candidates need to win a majority of them to pick up their party’s nomination. And no other date has more of those delegates at stake than Super Tuesday.

On the Republican side, 854 of 2,429 delegates — more than 35% — are up for grabs. About 36%, or 1,420 delegates, are in play for Democrats.
Nobody will become the presumptive nominee after Tuesday’s primaries. But President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are expected to get close.
Why is this Super Tuesday different?
Normally, it’s a big deal that can make or break a candidate.
For example, in 2020, Biden was basically counted out of the race after dismal showings in early primaries. Then he won the South Carolina primary. A few days later, he mounted a swift and stunning comeback on Super Tuesday that really gave everyone a jolt. He ran the board, winning 10 of the 14 states. Other candidates dropped out of the race after his wins. And you know what happened after that.
But that was then. This year there’s not much of a chance for a surprise. Biden is the incumbent and the only major candidate for Democrats. He faces only token opposition. On the Republican side, Donald Trump has won nearly every primary so far and is expected to win big on Tuesday, too.
Is it a foregone conclusion?
Spoiler alert! Don’t read on if you want to be surprised by Tuesday's likely winners.
We know already that Biden and Trump are the front-runners. So it seems like that trend will continue.
There’s always the possibility of an upset. Nikki Haley is still in the race to be the Republican presidential nominee, and she won the District of Columbia primary. But she’s facing tough contests in states where she’s struggled to win support. So it doesn’t look good for her. Biden is far and away leading over Democratic challengers Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson.
But even though we might think we know what will happen, neither Trump nor Biden will be able to claim the “presumptive nominee” title yet. The earliest that could happen is March 12 for Trump and March 19 for Biden.

Are there important state races to watch on Super Tuesday?
The highest-profile state race in California is the one to succeed the late Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who died last fall.
There’s a crowded field of candidates that includes Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee, Katie Porter and Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey, a former baseball star.
It’s kind of confusing, though: There are two primary elections on the ballot to replace Feinstein. One is to fill the remaining months of her current term and the other is for a full six-year term starting in January 2025.
Keep in mind that California has a “top-two” primary system in which all candidates appear on the same ballot regardless of party, and the top two finishers advance to the general election.
Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Tags: Associated Press, politics, elections

Health benefits navigation platform Healthee garners $32M

The company will use the funds to scale its employee-focused benefits-navigation platform and speed up product development.

Photo: Luis Alvarez/Getty Images

Healthee, a healthcare benefits navigation platform, announced it secured $32 million in a Series A funding round. 
Fin Capital, Glilot Capital Partners, and Group11 co-led the round with participation from TriNet, a publicly traded company providing companies with HR-related offerings, including payroll, benefits, compliance and risk-management solutions. 
Lior Litwak, managing partner and head of Glilot+, an early growth fund of Glilot Capital Partners, will join Healthee's board of directors. 
WHAT IT DOES
Healthee, formerly Insurights, offers a platform that answers employees' questions regarding benefits, coverage and treatment, as well as open enrollment support and preventative care recommendations. 
The company will use the funds to scale its platform and operations and support its expansion initiatives.   
"Healthee's GenAI-based solution is a real game-changer in this industry and a true platform play for managing employers and employees complete health benefit needs," Litwak said in a statement. 
"We were greatly impressed by Healthee's impact not only on employer healthcare costs but, more importantly, on employee wellbeing and out-of-pocket spend. We look forward to supporting Healthee on their journey to transform healthcare delivery to U.S. employees."
MARKET SNAPSHOT
The company launched in 2021 as Insurights and rebranded to Healthee in 2022. 
Last year, TriNet announced a collaboration with Healtheee to provide its customers with access to Healthee's benefits-navigation offerings, including those that help employees pick the right healthcare benefits and navigate existing ones.  
Other businesses offering a platform to help employees navigate their healthcare benefits include Chicago-based HealthJoy, which provides benefits navigation to employers and virtual services for chronic care management, dermatology, adult and adolescent mental health, musculoskeletal therapy, urgent care, nutrition, and tobacco cessation. 
Healthcare navigation and pharmacy benefits platform Rightway is another company in the space, as are Angle Health, Pebble and Collective Health.

Hims & Hers spotlights increased year-over-year and 2023 Q4 revenue

The virtual care company reported a 65% increase in revenue in 2023 compared to 2022 and a 47% increase in Q4 2023 revenue compared to the previous year.

Photo: Lacheev/Getty Images

Direct-to-consumer virtual care company Hims & Hers Health reported a total of $246.6 million in revenue for Q4 compared to $167.2 million for the fourth quarter of 2022 and total year-over-year revenue in 2023 of $872.0 million compared to $526.9 million for 2022. 
The San Francisco-based company reported a net income for the fourth quarter of $1.2 million compared to a net loss of $10.9 million in Q4 2022. 
For 2023, the company had a net loss of $23.5 million compared to $65.7 million in the prior year. 
Its gross profit increased from 79% in Q4 of 2022 to 83% in Q4 2023, similar to its yearly gross profit increase of 82% for 2023, up from 78% in 2022. 
Adjusted EBITDA was $20.6 million for Q4 2023 compared to $3.9 million for the fourth quarter of 2022 and $49.5 million for the year compared to a loss of $15.8 million for 2022.
The company reported a 48% Q4 2023 year-over-year growth in subscribers to 1.5 million. 
"Our outstanding results in 2023 underscore the power of the Hims & Hers brands and superior execution across the organization," Andrew Dudum, cofounder and CEO, said in a statement. 
"In 2024, we expect to eclipse $1 billion in revenue and deliver our first full year of net income profitability through a continued focus on building personalized and accessible treatments in each of our core specialties. We believe this approach will meaningfully break down barriers that keep individuals from seeking treatment, which will allow us to bring these unique offerings to tens of millions of subscribers over time."
THE LARGER TREND
Hims & Hers closed its merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Oaktree Acquisition in 2021 and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange at $9.80 per share.
The company has since seen its stock price reach a high of $23.99 in 2021 and, as of today, is hovering around $14.62 per share. 
In Q3 of last year, the company reported 57% year-over-year revenue of $226.7 million, compared to $144.8 million in the same period in 2022, and announced the launch of an AI-enabled offering in beta testing dubbed MedMatch, which provides healthcare providers with anonymized data points generated from the company's customer database to help identify suitable treatments for patients suffering from anxiety and depression according to their individual needs. 
In November, Dr. Patrick Carroll, Hims & Hers chief medical officer, sat down with MobiHealthNews for an exclusive interview to discuss the company's EMR and MedMatch. 
"What we do is we have millions of data points that come from a fully vertical system. So we have insight into the patient's demographics, past medical history and medications." Carroll said. "So when you have those millions of data points, you can imagine that's like a treasure trove for someone in machine learning or AI."

Q&A: Walgreens CMO on VillageMD closures

Dr. Sashi Moodley, chief medical officer at Walgreens, discusses the reasoning behind the pharmacy store chain's recently announced closures of VillageMD clinics.

Photo courtesy of Walgreens

Last week, Walgreens announced its tech-enabled value-based care provider VillageMD would close clinics in Florida in a bid to increase profitability, and earlier this week confirmed to Becker's it would close all its Illinois clinics in April.  
Chief medical officer at Walgreens, Dr. Sashi Moodley, sat down with MobiHealthNews at ViVE24 to discuss the current state of Walgreens work in healthcare and the closures of VillageMD clinics.
MobiHealthNews: Can you give an overview of Walgreens' current work in healthcare?
Dr. Sashi Moodley: We definitely have a lot of things going on. Just in the last few months, if you've followed the headlines, we've launched a new virtual care program that is live in nine states. Right now, it's direct-to-consumer, but over time, I think we'll try to get in-network with insurance and expand the set of conditions, and over time, I think we also want to expand the states we serve. But so far, we've had pretty good demand for the service, and it's been great to kind of just see the stories that we get, you know, patients being able to have a seamless experience. 
To step back for a second, if you look at where patients go when they have a non-emergency, kind of not a major issue, 50% of them end up going to the pharmacy as their first stop. And right now, we serve our patients with a variety of different diagnostic tests and other treatments over the counter, but, you know, for example, if a consumer buys a urinary test strip, for example, and has a positive test, they then have to go find an appointment with their doctor, or go to an urgent care or ER, and anyone knows that can sometimes be quite inconvenient, take multiple weeks to get an appointment.
So, what we want to do is try to address that unmet need, and so trying to create a very seamless experience for patients. And so, you know, if they have a positive test, for example, they can go on the platform, see a doctor within 15 minutes, and if warranted, receive the antibiotic and then have that sent to the pharmacy of their choice, and, if it's Walgreens, pick it up that same day or get it delivered to their home. We want to kind of blend that physical and digital experience for patients.
MHN: Consumers embraced virtual care during COVID, but that enthusiasm may be waning, and VillageMD is closing many clinics. How is Walgreens ensuring it is keeping patients interested in using this technology?
Dr. Moodley: So virtual care is one modality out of many that we have. I think if you step back for a second, we've got, I think, 10 million interactions a day with consumers across the country, and those are through all of our different channels: digital, in-store, and even through our in-person care delivery companies. And so, we're trying to tailor our experience to the patients that we serve, because every patient is a little different, and care looks different. 
And so, something like virtual care lends itself to a direct-to-consumer model, more of a potentially cash-paid model. And then you've got care delivery models on the other end of the spectrum that are much better positioned for value-based care models, and we're doing both. 
And so, it's not an "or" it's an "and," right? We serve so many people across the country who have a diverse set of needs, that we're trying to tailor our care models to address what patients really want. And we're trying to be very consumer-centric, and that is our DNA as a retailer. And so, that would be my kind of thinking around this – it's not a this or this, it's a this and this, and, you know, how do we engage patients in the way they want to be engaged? And I think over time, as patients change their preferences, we will adapt as well so that we can remain relevant.
MHN: What sort of testing does the company do to ensure it's adapting to consumers' wants?
Dr. Moodley: I think virtual care is a good example of where we launched in nine markets with a discrete set of services to test out what was the demand: How much do patients actually want to pay? Are we actually providing a better experience than what they're getting today? And, you know, as we get those proof points, we'll continue to iterate and launch new services. And I think you'll see us, hopefully over the next few months, continue to grow and expand. I think we always try to keep the consumer, the patient, at the center, and really understand what the experience is through their lens, and then go back to the drawing board and iterate as we need to, and then scale certain models and where we see things that may not be working the way we want, and deprioritize those things.
MHN: What kind of challenges has Walgreens faced?
Dr. Moodley: As we look through our different models, trying to figure out which models we prioritize in which markets. We've got a lot of different solutions, and we're thinking through how we can build density and Centers of Excellence really in different markets. So that's an ongoing exercise.
So, I think we just have a lot of things going on, and we're trying to prioritize and figure out which models we'll focus on, and in which geographies we're focusing. We also know there's a huge opportunity there to work with doctors that we don't necessarily employ, whether they're independent doctors, solo practitioners, medical groups, or even health systems. There's a lot more we can do there. And so, I think, we're also going to, over time, scale some of those models.
MHN: How do you solve those problems?
Dr. Moodley: It's an iterative process. As you mentioned, the [VillageMD] closures. I think we're learning as we go. At the end of the day, we want to have a scalable, sustainable clinical model that's delivering high-quality care and delivering lower costs. 
And as you had earlier mentioned, patient preferences change, and so we have to adapt. So, I think we have to remain nimble as we are, and you'll continue to see our models evolve and, as I mentioned, prioritize certain areas and deprioritize others as we learn more about what's working and where we want to focus on.
MHN: Is that what happened with the [VillageMD] closures? Some things that the company thought would hit did not hit?
Dr. Moodley: Again, it's back to focusing on where we have density and where we're able to deliver on our promise of providing high-quality care. I think there's a lot we can do. It's such a massive company, and in so many states - in 9,000 stores - and all the engagements. And I think we just want to make sure that we're focusing our efforts in the areas where we can drive the most value.