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A number of Healthcare Labyrinth blog readers asked me if I would write on the Change Healthcare cyberattack and its implications. Below is what I have culled together over the past month and my thoughts about what happened and repercussions. I will attempt to write at a high level and not get too technical – in part because details are still scarce. Overview of what happened We are a month into the Change Healthcare cyberattack. On February 21, 2024, Change Healthcare reported that it was a victim of a cyberattack. It appears that the attack was a ransomware attack by the BlackCat organization and affiliates. It is known to target the healthcare industry. Change Healthcare may have paid a ransom of as much as $22 million, but this has not been confirmed. The attackers claimed about six terabytes of PHI and PII data were stolen (this could be tens of

In my January 22, 2024 Healthcare Labyrinth Blog ( https://www.healthcarelabyrinth.com/great-news-for-insurers-and-medicare-beneficiaries-january-2023-to-january-2024-medicare-advantage-growth-rebounds/ ), I told you about the exciting news of Medicare Advantage’s (MA) continued strong growth (from January 2023 to January 2024) as well as a nice recovery from a bit of a sluggish increase from January 2022 to January 2023. As I always do, I publish a follow-up blog in the first few months of each year given continuing growth outside of the main enrollment season from October 15 to December 7. This is because of a somewhat recent change that allows members enrolled in a MA plans to change to a different MA plan or go back to traditional Medicare (and also choose a standalone Part D (PDP) plan. This occurs from January 1 to March 31 of each year. Because of this, MA plans continue to advertise vigorously to attract additional members and there is net new enrollment

After promising not to touch Social Security and Medicare throughout his campaign, GOP 2024 candidate and former President Donald Trump seemingly reopened his views on the issue – only to have Biden attack him and then Trump having to clean up after. Here is the back and forth (this could be the only real debate we see from the candidates) : In comments to a journalist on whether he had changed his views on entitlements, Trump declared: “So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements, tremendous bad management of entitlements. … There’s tremendous amounts of things and numbers of things you can do. So I don’t necessarily agree with the statement.” It seems reasonably clear that Trump likely was talking about cleaning up administration and fighting

In early February, Buckingham Palace announced that King Charles has been diagnosed with cancer. As is often the case for the royals’ personal lives, not a lot is always shared. But the King and his now deceased mother should be congratulated for some of their openness. Like his mother’s announcements when her health was in question, the King’s announcement was meant to encourage everyone to take care and get preventive care performed. At the same time, the King’s announcement has shined a light on some of the problems in the United Kingdom’s healthcare system. As I have covered a few times in my blogs, the U.K. just celebrated its National Health Services’ 75th anniversary of its founding a few years after World War II ended. The U.K. took the socialized medicine approach, where the government funds, directs, runs, and largely provides healthcare services to its citizens. Some other nations in