Hacking’s a drain on health care

The ideas and innovators shaping health care

Mar 22, 2023 View in browser   By Ben Leonard, Ruth Reader and Erin Schumaker TECH MAZE Regulators should come with money, Garcia says, if they want to impose mandates. | Courtesy of Greg Garcia Greg Garcia helps health care organizations partner with the government in the fight against hackers. The members of the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council’s Cybersecurity Working Group that he leads — health systems, insurers and health tech companies, among others — face serious threats. Those threats include ransomware attacks that jeopardize patient safety and bottom lines. Ben caught up with Garcia to discuss new guidance his group helped write with the Department of Health and Human Services on cybersecurity standards and the possibility that Congress will mandate minimum security procedures for health care organizations. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.  How do you assess the level of adoption of cybersecurity best practices? Adoption is constantly increasing. What we’re trying to do is get the small and mid-sized organizations to up their game. What are the biggest barriers for them?  We’re working to bear down on how they’re getting beat. What are the vulnerabilities or lack of controls that hackers are exploiting? Email security is one of the most basic ones. Another one is the need for multifactor authentication. Things like that are fairly simple. Not everything takes a lot of money. The bigger issue with the small hospitals is that we are still in the post-pandemic or near-post-pandemic environment. The existential questions these hospitals have to go through — cybersecurity does not always rise to the top of their priority list. Senate Intelligence Chair Mark Warner is mulling legislation that could set minimum cybersecurity standards for health organizations. What do you think about that?  We have minimum standards. Whether or not the government wants to make them mandatory, that’s going to be up to them. If you’re going to regulate us, show us the money. The government can provide reimbursement incentives, subsidies and outright grants. Let’s think creatively about that.   DOWNLOAD THE POLITICO MOBILE APP: Stay up to speed with the newly updated POLITICO mobile app, featuring timely political news, insights and analysis from the best journalists in the business. The sleek and navigable design offers a convenient way to access POLITICO's scoops and groundbreaking reporting. Don’t miss out on the app you can rely on for the news you need, reimagined. DOWNLOAD FOR iOS– DOWNLOAD FOR ANDROID.     WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE Tidal Basin, Washington, D.C. | Shawn Zeller This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Expect a grilling tomorrow morning when TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about how the social media company's app affects children's mental health. Chew should be well prepared. He recently hired former Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Calif.), who is now a lobbyist at law firm Dentons, and has former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) on retainer. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Ben Leonard at bleonard@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com, Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp.   LISTEN TO POLITICO'S ENERGY PODCAST: Check out our daily five-minute brief on the latest energy and environmental politics and policy news. Don't miss out on the must-know stories, candid insights, and analysis from POLITICO's energy team. Listen today.     CHECKUP Allowing residents to meet with out-of-state doctors has worked out well in Florida and Idaho, according to a new report. | AP Experiments in loosening medical-licensing rules have worked out well for patients in Idaho and Florida, a new study contends. The report from the Cicero Institute, an entrepreneurship-focused think tank in Austin, Texas, aims to make a case for continuing to allow patients to meet virtually with out-of-state doctors. That’s something many states permitted during the pandemic by waiving state licensing rules, and they’re now deciding whether to continue. The Cicero Institute found little reason not to. It reported: — Florida officials have received just 16 patient complaints since the state legislature approved cross-state telemedicine in 2019, and officials have taken no disciplinary actions against telehealth providers. — In Idaho, GOP Gov. Brad Little’s decision to allow cross-state telemedicine in 2020 has also had virtually no pushback from patients in the form of formal complaints. Those results should reassure policymakers, said Josh Archambault, a senior fellow at the Cicero Institute who wrote the report with Harvard telemedicine researcher Ateev Mehrotra. “The big takeaway is that telehealth is not sparking more patient concerns than in-person care,” Archambault said. FOLLOW THE MONEY Researchers are examining whether magic mushrooms can treat depression | AP Advocates of decriminalizing psychedelics believe the evidence supports their medicinal use to treat diseases like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. In their campaign to convince government that's true, some of psychedelics' proponents are hoping that helping politicians fund their own campaigns will prove mutually beneficial. The Psychedelic Medicine PAC will contribute to candidates who support more research to buttress the case for prescribing psychedelic therapy. Among the drugs the PAC promotes are: — MDMA, a stimulant more commonly known as ecstasy, which the Food and Drug Administration is examining as a possible treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder — Psilocybin, better known as magic mushrooms, which is in clinical trials for treating depression — Ketamine, which the FDA approved decades ago as an anesthetic and, more recently, as a nasal spray version treating depression Melissa Lavasani, a co-founder of the PAC, used psilocybin to recover from postpartum depression and helped convince Washington, D.C., voters in 2020 to decriminalize the substance. And she has reason for optimism about Congress: — Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) pushed through separate amendments to the annual defense policy bill last year that relaxed restrictions around psychedelic medicine research for veterans. – Reps. Jack Bergman (R-Mich.) and Lou Correa (D-Calif.) started the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies Caucus earlier this month. — Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have expressed interest in legislation to advance psychedelics research.   Follow us on Twitter Ben Leonard @_BenLeonard_ Ruth Reader @RuthReader Carmen Paun @carmenpaun Erin Schumaker @erinlschumaker   Follow us

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