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The healthcare industry has suffered fewer but larger cybersecurity breaches in the first half of 2023, suggesting a shift in targets and tactics among attackers, wrote cybersecurity firm Critical Insight in a new report. The 308 healthcare data breaches reported to the federal government from January through June represent a 15% sequential decline from the back half of 2022’s 363, according to the report. (Muoio, 8/24)

Health insurer Cigna Group said on Thursday it would remove the use of prior authorization or paperwork required to get approval for insurance coverage for 25% of medical services. Health insurers have come under pressure as physicians claim that the pre-authorization requirements for some procedures are restrictive and increases their paperwork. (8/24)

A federal appeals court has revived a high-profile class action lawsuit that accuses a UnitedHealth Group subsidiary of improperly denying mental health claims. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled Tuesday that some policyholders may be entitled to relief from United Behavioral Health, partially reversing an earlier decision. (Tepper, 8/24)

Tens of thousands of workers at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and clinics across the country will soon vote on whether to authorize a strike, union officials announced Thursday. The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which includes a dozen local unions with members in seven states and the District of Columbia, said voting would begin Saturday and extend into the middle of September. Any strike would start no earlier than Oct. 1. (Alpert Reyes, 8/24)

Nonprofit healthcare systems are adding or expanding facilities in an effort to keep up with patients' growing demands, despite a challenging operating environment. At the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, construction continues on a 17-story UPMC Presbyterian inpatient tower, a $1.5 billion project at the system's Oakland hospital campus that will house 636 beds. The tower, on track to open in 2026, will offer specialty care such as cardiology and neurology, according to UPMC. (Hudson, 8/24)

Nearly two-thirds of Medicare Shared Savings Program accountable care organizations earned shared savings last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Thursday. These ACOs saved Medicare $1.8 billion in 2022, 8.4% more than during the previous year, according to CMS. The proportion of Shared Savings Program ACOs that generated cost reductions increased from 58% to 63%. (Berryman and Tepper, 8/24)

A fourth-year medical student, a music therapist, a child psychiatrist, and a physician-researcher stared at their laptops, puzzling over the combination of words that would make a supposedly intelligent system — NYU Langone’s customized version of ChatGPT — think about health care problems in a way that was useful to them. (Aguilar, 8/25)

Healthcare providers are struggling to get patients to tell them about problems they face outside of the exam room. Providers want patients to tell them about their social needs but confront mistrust, shame and other obstacles to people sharing unflattering details about their personal lives, said Lauren Barca, vice president of quality at 86Borders, a patient engagement vendor. Patients also may not trust what providers will do with the information they collect, she said. (Hartnett, 8/24)

Companies are selling body scans to seemingly healthy patients, promising peace of mind. Traditional medical professionals are concerned about the costs. The financial cost for a preventive scan ranges from $650 to several thousand dollars. Insurance generally doesn’t cover it. Demand for these types of procedures has surged, particularly among the wealthy, healthcare professionals say. (Janin, 8/24)

When the American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed its support for gender-affirming care earlier this month, and called for a systematic review of the evidence, some swaths of the public saw the move as casting doubt on the benefits of such care. (Gaffney, 8/25)

In 1972, as Congress promised dialysis and rehabilitation for all kidney failure patients in America, Australia was passing its own law to guarantee universal dialysis coverage. Since then, Australia and America have traveled very different paths, in dialysis and in health care as a whole. (Muller, 8/25)