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Health care experts: Local measles outbreak unlikely

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More than 100 people across the country have been diagnosed with measles after a patron at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. spread the disease to dozens at the park. But while the number of vaccination exemptions for children entering public schools has increased significantly in recent years, health care experts say an outbreak of the disease locally is unlikely.

Measles is a highly contagious, potentially fatal virus with symptoms of fever, rash, cough and runny nose. The MMR (measles, mumps rubella) vaccine is required by the state of Connecticut for children entering public schools unless they receive an exemption for either medical or religious reasons.

According to the state Department of Public Health, the number of children entering school with medical exemptions increased from .15 percent to .26 percent between 2003 and 2013. Over the same period children exempted for religious reasons quadrupled from .33 percent to 1.2 percent. In 2013 alone, a total of 1,246 children went unvaccinated for either medical or religious reasons.

While there have been no cases of measles in the state this year to date, five cases were reported in 2014, more than the previous 10 years combined. The last serious outbreak of the disease was between 1989 and 1991 when over 350 cases were reported.

Chief medical officer and family doctor for Community Health Centers Inc. Veena Channamsetty said the recent outbreak nationally is because patients or their parents are voluntarily forgoing vaccination.

For us to see this outbreak right now is due to the decrease in vaccinations, usually because of patients declining, Channamsetty said. Its usually a misplaced personal belief, they feel maybe I dont need the vaccine, or they feel what if the vaccine harms me? or if everyone else is vaccinated around me I dont need it, and the consequences of that is a disease that was essentially gone is now outbreaking.

In Meriden, 100 percent of students in the public schools were vaccinated in 2013 for measles according to Public Health Nursing Administrator Stephanie Geremia, compared to 98.8 percent of kids in the state. In Wallingford, 99 percent of students attending public schools were vaccinated. Data was not readily available for Southington and Cheshire.

Dr. Philip Brewer, director of Health Services at Quinnipiac University, said he thinks a widespread outbreak is unlikely because of high local vaccination rates.

I wouldnt be surprised to have a case or two in Connecticut but luckily we have a pretty good vaccination rate, he said. Its low enough that a case may become a small cluster of cases but its very unlikely to become an epidemic.

Although an outbreak is unlikely locally, the disease should not be taken lightly, Brewer said, because worldwide 150,000 still die annually from measles.

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Health care experts: Local measles outbreak unlikely

Hackers Targeting Health Care

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Health care offers attractive growth opportunities for cyber criminals looking to steal reams of personal information, as the hacking of a database maintained by the second-largest U.S. health insurer proves.

The latest breach at health insurer Anthem Inc. follows a year in which more than 10 million people were affected by health care data breaches including hacking or accidents that exposed personal information, such as lost laptops according to a government database that tracks incidents affecting at least 500 people. The numbers, compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services, show that last year was the worst for health care hacking since 2011, when more than 11 million people were affected.

Health care hacking is becoming more of a focus as retailers and other businesses have clamped down on security after massive breaches at companies like Target and Home Depot. That has made it more difficult in some cases for cyber thieves to infiltrate their systems. As a result, theyve turned their attention toward health care.

Experts say health care companies can provide many entry points into their systems for crooks to steal data. And once criminals get that information, they can pull off far more extensive and lucrative schemes.

If someone steals your credit card and home address, they might be able to buy something, but you can usually get that locked down quickly, said Tony Anscombe, a security expert with the cyber-security firm AVG Technologies. With medical records and a Social Security number, its not so simple.

Anthem said late Wednesday that hackers broke into a database storing information on 80 million people in an attack the company discovered last week. The Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer said the hackers gained access to names, birthdates, email address, employment details, Social Security numbers, incomes and street addresses of people who are currently covered or have had coverage in the past.

The insurer, which covers more than 37 million people, said credit card information wasnt compromised, and it has yet to find any evidence that medical information was targeted. Anthem Inc. doesnt know how many people were affected by the attack, but a spokeswoman said that number was probably in the tens of millions.

The impact could be far-reaching. The hackers may have simply been probing Anthems defenses with plans to plant malware that steals information or to come back with a much larger attack, said Eran Barak, CEO of another cybersecurity firm, Hexadite.

Other experts caution that the hackers may have indeed made off with medical information, and that has not been discovered yet.

Criminals who obtain stolen Social Security or health insurance account numbers have shown more sophistication than the average credit-card fraudster, according to Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, a consumer advocacy group.

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Hackers Targeting Health Care

Connected care: When and where you need it | Kristi Henderson | TEDxJackson – Video

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Connected care: When and where you need it | Kristi Henderson | TEDxJackson
Telehealth has the power to solve some of the most difficult problems in health care. Mississippi #39;s limited resources and rural population created an opportunity for leadership in telehealth...

By: TEDx Talks

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Connected care: When and where you need it | Kristi Henderson | TEDxJackson - Video

Pet Health Care Gazette Keeping Pets Happy and Healthy …

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One of the most common complaints I hear as a veterinarian is how difficult it is for many cat owners to get their cat to the veterinarian (or anywhere else outside of the home, for that matter.) The chief reason these owners have difficulty is because their cat does not like the carrier and is often hard to actually get into the carrier.

Being able to get your cat into and out of the carrier when needed is a necessity though. Cats need regular veterinary care and, in order to get to the veterinarian, a cat carrier is essential. Theres also the fact that, should an emergency occur that requires leaving your home quickly with your cat, being able to get your cat into the carrier quickly and easily without a struggle could mean the difference between life and death.

Fortunately, there are some good ways to help your cat become acclimated to the carrier and to essentially make your cats carrier a retreat for him while hes at home as well as making it a home away from home, a place where your cat feels safe and secure when out of your home. In other words, your cats carrier doesnt have to be (and shouldnt be) a scary thing for him.

The American Association of Feline Practitioners (AAFP) have kindly provided the following infographic that contains some great tips for helping your cat become acclimated to the carrier. Definitely worth a look!

It may take some time and patience but your cat can learn to love and enjoy his carrier. Once that happens, your life and your cats life will become much less complicated and stressful, especially when it comes time for that veterinary visit.

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Pet Health Care Gazette Keeping Pets Happy and Healthy ...

No encryption standard raises health care privacy questions

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WASHINGTON (AP) Insurers aren't required to encrypt consumers' data under a 1990s federal law that remains the foundation for health care privacy in the Internet age an omission that seems striking in light of the major cyberattack against Anthem.

Encryption uses mathematical formulas to scramble data, converting sensitive details coveted by intruders into gibberish. Anthem, the second-largest U.S. health insurer, has said the data stolen from a company database that stored information on 80 million people was not encrypted.

The main federal health privacy law the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA encourages encryption, but doesn't require it.

The lack of a clear encryption standard undermines public confidence, some experts say, even as the government plows ahead to spread the use of computerized medical records and promote electronic information sharing among hospitals, doctors and insurers.

"We need a whole new look at HIPAA," said David Kibbe, CEO of DirectTrust, a nonprofit working to create a national framework for secure electronic exchange of personal health information.

"Any identifying information relevant to a patient ... should be encrypted," said Kibbe. It should make no difference, he says, whether that information is being transmitted on the Internet or sitting in a company database, as was the case with Anthem.

Late Friday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee said it's planning to examine encryption requirements as part of a bipartisan review of health information security. "We will consider whether there are ways to strengthen current protections," said Jim Jeffries, spokesman for chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

The agency charged with enforcing the privacy rules is a small unit of the federal Health and Human Services Department, called the Office for Civil Rights.

The office said in a statement Friday that it has yet to receive formal notification of the hack from Anthem, but nonetheless is treating the case as a privacy law matter. Although Anthem alerted mainline law enforcement agencies, the law allows 60 days for notifying HHS.

The statement from the privacy office said the kind of personal data stolen by the Anthem hackers is covered by HIPAA, even if it does not include medical information.

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No encryption standard raises health care privacy questions

Hackers target health care as industry goes digital

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Medical fraud could increase as hackers gain sensitive medical information on victims

With more health providers and insurers incorporating IT into clinical care, hackers are viewing the health care industry as their next target.

"Cybercriminals know that the health industry is moving into EHRs and there's more data to steal," said Ann Peterson, program director at the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance, an organization that works to reduce medical fraud.

Electronic health records, or EHRs, are increasingly being used by hospitals and doctors' offices to store information such as test results and treatment plans, along with data such as patient names, Social Security numbers and birth dates.

Health insurance companies also use EHRs and store other personal data, such as credit card details, making them attractive targets for hackers. This week, Anthem, one of the largest health insurers in the U.S., said sensitive information on possibly 80 million employees and customers had been exposed during a cyberattack. The information thieves made off with included patient names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and medical identification numbers.

The information can be pieced together and used to commit a variety of types of fraud, making it lucrative for hackers. Social Security numbers, for example, can be used to gain access to bank accounts, noted John Kindervag, a principal analyst at Forrester Research.

By targeting Anthem, hackers were able to access information that is commonly used to reset user names and passwords, said Ian Campbell, CEO of Nucleus Research. People are sometimes asked to enter their mother's maiden name when signing up for services, for example. Since this information is static, it can be combined with a person's email address to reset a person's email account.

"People should ask 'Will I have a problem 10 years from now because someone knows information that's not normally available?'" he said.

The health care industry is especially vulnerable compared to retailers and banks, which are more accustomed to cyberattacks, said Lynne Dunbrack, research vice president at IDC Health Insights.

"Cybercriminals tend to think of health care organizations as soft targets. Historically, they haven't invested much in IT, and security specifically," she said.

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Hackers target health care as industry goes digital

In Obamas Budget, Questionable Health-Care Savings

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In the presidentsbudgetreleased this week, the Obama administration proposed approximately $400 billion in health-care savings. While that sounds impressive, the number might actually be lessfor one proposal relies on a board that does not yet exist and that the administration has made no effort to establish.

As it has in previous years, the presidents 2016 budget proposal relies on savings achieved by strengthening the Independent Payment Advisory Boardthis time to the tune of more than $20 billion. Created as part of Obamacare, IPAB was intended to be a group of non-partisan experts, nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, who would make recommendations on slowing the growth of Medicare costs. The recommendations were to take effect automatically unless overruled by Congress.

Although the health-care law was enacted nearly five years ago, the administration has made no attempt to constitute IPAB:

* The president has not nominated members to the board for Senate confirmation;

* The president has signed appropriations legislation rescinding spending reserved for the board, most recently in Section 522 of last years cromnibus legislation;

* While secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius testified before Congressin 2011 that her agency would undertake a rule-making process to define rationing. Obamacare prohibits IPAB from rationing, but the term is not defined in statute. The administration, however, has not begun such a regulatory process.

When questioned on this issue, the administration has argued that the slowdown in Medicare spending makes the board unnecessary at the moment. Administration officials could also make the accurateif politically unpopularassertion that the Department of Health and Human Serviceshas the power to implement Medicare savings proposals unilaterally in the absence of a fully functioning board.

Nevertheless, the administration continues to rely on budgetary savings presumed to come from strengthen[ing] a board that President Obama has not moved to establish. That raises questions about its commitment to budgetary savingsand to IPAB itself.

Chris Jacobs is policy director ofAmerica Next, a conservative think tank. He is onTwitter:@chrisjacobshc

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In Obamas Budget, Questionable Health-Care Savings

Health care firms attractive to hackers

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* Anthem says breach may have affected 'tens of millions' of customers

Health care offers attractive growth opportunities for cybercriminals looking to steal reams of personal information, as the hacking of a database maintained by the second-largest U.S. health insurer proves.

The latest breach at health insurer Anthem Inc. follows a year in which more than 10 million people were affected by health care data breaches including hacking or accidents that exposed personal information, such as lost laptops according to a government database that tracks incidents affecting at least 500 people. The numbers, compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services, show that last year was the worst for health care hacking since 2011, when more than 11 million people were affected.

Anthem is the parent company for Amerigroup, which has more than 209,000 members enrolled in New Jersey, according to the state Department of Banking and Insurance. It is unclear whether they have been affected. The department is looking into the issue, a spokesman said. A spokeswoman for Amerigroup could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

Health-care hacking is becoming more of a focus as retailers and other businesses have clamped down on security after massive breaches at companies like Target and Home Depot. That has made it more difficult in some cases for hackers to infiltrate their systems. As a result, they've turned their attention toward health care.

Experts say health-care companies can provide many entry points into their systems for crooks to steal data. And once criminals get that information, they can pull off far more extensive and lucrative schemes.

"If someone steals your credit card and home address, they might be able to buy something, but you can usually get that locked down quickly," said Tony Anscombe, a security expert with the cybersecurity firm AVG Technologies. "With medical records and a Social Security number, it's not so simple."

Anthem said late Wednesday that hackers broke into a database storing information on 80 million people in an attack the company discovered last week. The Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer said the hackers gained access to names, birth dates, email address, employment details, Social Security numbers, incomes and street addresses of people who are currently covered or have had coverage in the past.

The insurer, which covers more than 37 million people, said credit card information wasn't compromised, and it has yet to find any evidence that medical information was targeted. Anthem doesn't know how many people were affected by the attack, but a spokeswoman said that number was probably in the "tens of millions."

The impact could be far-reaching. The hackers may have simply been probing Anthem's defenses with plans to plant malware that steals information or to come back with a much larger attack, said Eran Barak, CEO of another cybersecurity firm, Hexadite.

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Health care firms attractive to hackers


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