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The increasing demand for cosmetic procedures like Botox injections, dermal fillers and fat-dissolving treatments at popular medical spas has raised growing alarm about risky care from unlicensed providers. (Reed, 5/29)

Healthcare’s cybersecurity challenges have shined a light on how the industry has failed to protect patient data by not dedicating enough resources to address the problem. Health systems and insurers are dealing with the aftermath of the industry’s latest large-scale ransomware attacks on St. Louis-based Ascension, UnitedHealth Group's Change Healthcare and Chicago-based Lurie Children's Hospital, among others. Conversations are happening over whether organizations should be bringing in outside consultants or hiring more employees, executives say. (Perna, 5/28)

An unauthorized user or users accessed the email accounts of a "small number" of University of Chicago Medicine employees, potentially compromising patient health information. University of Chicago Medicine said that between Jan. 4 and 30, some of its employee email accounts were accessed without authorization. On March 28, University of Chicago Medicine determined that personal information was in at least one of the compromised email accounts. (Diaz, 5/28)

The heads of two powerful Senate committees want MultiPlan President and CEO Travis Dalton to answer questions how his company negotiates rates for out-of-network charges they say stick patients with "sky-high medical bills." (Tepper, 5/28)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News: Tennessee Gives This Hospital Monopoly An A Grade — Even When It Reports Failure 

A Tennessee agency that is supposed to hold accountable and grade the nation’s largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly awards full credit on dozens of quality-of-care measurements as long as it reports any value — regardless of how its hospitals actually perform. Ballad Health, a 20-hospital system in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia, has received A grades and an annual stamp of approval from the Tennessee Department of Health. This has occurred as Ballad hospitals consistently fall short of performance targets established by the state, according to health department documents. (Kelman, 5/29)

By the time Rena Barrow-Wells gave birth to her fourth baby in 2020, she was well-versed in caring for a child with cystic fibrosis. She was also experienced in fighting for a diagnosis of the disease, which runs in families and can severely damage the lungs and digestive system. Nineteen years earlier, her first son, Jarrod, displayed classic symptoms of cystic fibrosis as a newborn — failure to gain weight; a stubborn, phlegmy cough; and frequent, oily stools. But instead of identifying the cause of her son’s illness, doctors at the New Orleans emergency room where she took Jarrod blamed his poor growth on his mother, who is Black and was a teenager at the time. Ms. Barrow-Wells said that doctors had accused her of starving her son, placed the two of them in a room with video surveillance and reported her to child protective services. (Szabo, 5/29)

Suzanne Delbanco, PhD, the founding CEO of hospital watchdog organization The Leapfrog Group, is dead at 56, according to a May 28 news release. Dr. Delbanco led the design and implementation of the annual hospital safety grades report that has since been adopted and sought after by hospitals nationwide. Prior to founding The Leapfrog Group, Dr. Delbanco worked for the Kaiser Family Foundation, another prominent healthcare analysis organization. (Hollowell, 5/28)