In Brief: Kaiser Says Patient Data Breaches On The Rise; SGR Repeal Moves Closer To Reality
Kaiser Says Patient Data Breaches On The Rise
A new study by researchers affiliated with Kaiser Permanente and Stanford University has concluded that significant breaches of patient data is on the rise.
The study, which appeared in the most recent issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, concluded that large-scale breaches of patient health infromation (500 or more record breaches per incident) increased from 210 in 2010 to 265 in 2013. There were increases in each intervening year. Altogether, the breaches impacted about 29 million patients in total.
California was among the five states where the most breaches occured. About half of the breaches were connected to the loss or theft of laptops and thumb drives, as well as the more traditional patient records. However, incidents of hacking electronic medical records rose from 12% in 2010 to 27% in 2013, suggesting that breach incidents are becoming more an act of commission rather than omission (a lost laptop or thumb drive).
“Given the rapid expansion in electronic health record deployment since 2012, as well as the expected increase in cloud-based services provided by vendors supporting predictive analytics, personal health records, health-related sensors, and gene sequencing technology, the frequency and scope of electronic healthcare data breaches are likely to increase. Strategies to mitigate the risk and effect of these breaches will be essential to ensure the well-being of patients, clinicians, and healthcare systems,” wrote the study’s authors.
An editorial accompanying the study article warned that it patient health information is not better secured, they will refuse to share it electronically and could reduce the clinical value of their data as a result.
SGR Repeal Moving Closer To Reality
A repeal of a controversial formula dictating how physicians
are paid by the Medicare program has been repealed by Congress and will likely be signed into law by President Barack Obama.
The U.S. Senate voted earlier this week to repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate formula (SGR). The House voted to repeal SGR last month.
The SGR has governed Medicare payments to physicians since it was passed into law in the late 1990s. However, the formula for determining payments based on the SGR has not been implemented for more than a decade, mostly due to resistance from the physician community. Instead, Congress has been issued payment “patches” on an annual basis. Based on the current SGR formula, Medicare payments to physicians would be cut by 21%.
If signed into law, the repealed SGR would be replaced with a formula that would increase Medicare payments 0.5% per year through 2019, and then encourage doctors to enter into a variety of alternative payment models with the intent of cutting the cost of delivering care and increasing efficiency.
The replacement of SGR is forecast to cost $213 billion over the next decade, although that would be offset to some extent by higher Medicare premiums for wealthier retirees.
