Tag: kaiser health news

Can Your Practice Afford a Data Breach?

Probably not.

A recent study found that the total average cost of a healthcare breach is $10.10 million.

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Can your healthcare practice afford a breach? Most healthcare entities cannot.

Since 2020, healthcare breach costs have risen by 42%.

As we know healthcare breaches are incessant, it is important to understand trends.

The trends that have emerged over the past few years are:

  1. Repeat attacks. Many healthcare entities have seen repeat attacks. Organizations with automated security systems were able to shorten the breach lifecycle and mitigate the damage caused by the breach.
  2. Consistent causes. The most common cause of data breaches were stolen credentials. Ransomware also continues to plague healthcare entities, with ransomware increasing by 41% in
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What is frontotemporal dementia? -Harvard Health

Concept of confusion, yellow cutout of head with scribbles and question marks in brain and top of head opening; turquoise blue background

Many people know the form of dementia called Alzheimer’s disease. But what is frontotemporal dementia (FTD)? Damage to nerves in certain parts of the brain causes a group of frontotemporal disorders, affecting behavior and language as I’ll describe below.

Early signs of frontotemporal dementia

Have you noticed someone behaving differently? Is your coworker doing odd things, such as slapping each door as they walk down the hall? Or has your previously kind and caring spouse lost their capacity for empathy, such that when you told them about your cancer diagnosis, they complained that your treatment schedule would interfere with their golf game? If so, they might be showing early signs of the behavioral variant of FTD.

Maybe there’s a problem with language, rather than behavior. Maybe it started with difficulty finding words (like any older adult), but is your sibling now having trouble with grammar and getting out an intelligible

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Is Your Practice Fraudulently Billing?

Most of our clients would obviously answer ‘no’, however, some providers are submitting bills incorrectly and could be subjecting themselves to hefty fines.

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Recently, a Florida Cardiology group and 10 of its physicians agreed to pay $2 million to settle False Claims Act allegations.

According to the settlement, the group submitted inflated claims to Medicare and Medicaid and billed for services while they were outside of the United States.

Whistleblowers were involved in bringing this scheme to light.

While your healthcare practice might not be as brazen in violations, this serves as a good reminder to perform regular internal audits and review your billing.

Many of our practices think that their billing is perfect, however, there are often issues when

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‘A growing threat to human health’: we are ill-equipped for the dangers of fungal infections | Fungi

Qthe year is 2003, and a species of Cordyceps fungus has made the leap from ants to humans, transforming its hosts into frenzied, bloodthirsty zombies that spread the infection to everyone they bite. The solution proposed by a leading mycologist in Jakarta, Indonesia, where the first cases were detected, is radical, but in her view, essential: bomb the entire city and everyone in it to stop the infection in its tracks.

Last month, HBO’s long-awaited post-apocalyptic series The Last of Us hit our screens, to huge acclaim from both critics and fans. It posits that it isn’t viruses or bacteria that pose the greatest threat to society, but fungi – those same organisms beloved by brewers, bakers and wild-food enthusiasts. More specifically, climate change has prompted Ophiocordyceps unilateraliscommonly known as “zombie-ant fungus”, to adapt to surviving at higher temperatures, rendering humans an alternative host.

The writer-producer Craig Mazin

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