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Southwest Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowships

News

Last 50 News Postings

(Most recent listed first. Click on title to be directed to the manuscript.)

CMS Proposes Increased Reimbursement for Hospitals but a Decrease for
   Physicians in 2025
California Bill Would Tighten Oversight on Private Equity Hospital Purchases
Private Equity-Backed Steward Healthcare Files for Bankruptcy
Former US Surgeon General Criticizing $5,000 Emergency Room Bill
Nurses Launch Billboard Campaign Against Renewal of Desert Regional
   Medical Center Lease
$1 Billion Donation Eliminates Tuition at Albert Einstein Medical School
Kern County Hospital Authority Accused of Overpaying for Executive
   Services
SWJPCCS Associate Editor has Essay on Reining in Air Pollution Published
   in NY Times
Amazon Launches New Messaged-Based Virtual Healthcare Service
Hospitals Say They Lose Money on Medicare Patients but Make Millions
   Trust in Science Now Deeply Polarized
SWJPCC Associate Editor Featured in Albuquerque Journal
   Poisoning by Hand Sanitizers
Healthcare Layoffs During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Practice Fusion Admits to Opioid Kickback Scheme
Arizona Medical Schools Offer Free Tuition for Primary Care Commitment
Determining if Drug Price Increases are Justified
Court Overturns CMS' Site-Neutral Payment Policy
Pulmonary Disease Linked to Vaping
CEO Compensation-One Reason Healthcare Costs So Much
Doctor or Money Shortage in California?
FDA Commissioner Gottlieb Resigns
Physicians Generate an Average $2.4 Million a Year Per Hospital
Drug Prices Continue to Rise
New Center for Physician Rights
CMS Decreases Clinic Visit Payments to Hospital-Employed Physicians
   and Expands Decreases in Drug Payments 340B Cuts
Big Pharma Gives Millions to Congress
Gilbert Hospital and Florence Hospital at Anthem Closed
CMS’ Star Ratings Miscalculated
VA Announces Aggressive New Approach to Produce Rapid Improvements
   in VA Medical Centers
Healthcare Payments Under the Budget Deal: Mostly Good News
   for Physicians
Hospitals Plan to Start Their Own Generic Drug Company
Flu Season and Trehalose
MedPAC Votes to Scrap MIPS
CMS Announces New Payment Model
Varenicline (Chantix®) Associated with Increased Cardiovascular Events
Tax Cuts Could Threaten Physicians
Trump Nominates Former Pharmaceutical Executive as HHS Secretary
Arizona Averages Over 25 Opioid Overdoses Per Day
Maryvale Hospital to Close
California Enacts Drug Pricing Transparency Bill
Senate Health Bill Lacks 50 Votes Needed to Proceed
Medi-Cal Blamed for Poor Care in Lawsuit
Senate Republican Leadership Releases Revised ACA Repeal and Replace Bill
Mortality Rate Will Likely Increase Under Senate Healthcare Bill
University of Arizona-Phoenix Receives Full Accreditation
Limited Choice of Obamacare Insurers in Some Parts of the Southwest
Gottlieb, the FDA and Dumbing Down Medicine
Salary Surveys Report Declines in Pulmonologist, Allergist and Nurse
   Incomes
CDC Releases Ventilator-Associated Events Criteria

 

 

For complete news listings click here.

The Southwest Journal of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep periodically publishes news articles relevant to  pulmonary, critical care or sleep medicine which are not covered by major medical journals.

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Entries in Medicare Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (1)

Thursday
Feb272014

Banner Prints Social Security Numbers

The Monday edition of the Arizona Republic contained a story with potential interest to our readers. On the most recent address labels of Banner Health's magazine, Smart & Healthy, the addressee's Social Security or Medicare identification numbers, which are often identical to their Social Security numbers (1). The magazine was mailed to more than 50,000 recipients in Arizona late last week.

The recipients are members of the Medicare Pioneer Accountable Care Organization, a government health-care plan that Banner serves. Banner generated its mailing list from information it received from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which is an agency within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) responsible for administration of several federal health-care programs.

Although medical information has been protected by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) since 1996, penalties were recently increased. Civil monetary penalties were increased from a maximum of $100 to $50,000 per violation and the maximum aggregate increased from $25,000 for each violation to $1,500,000 per year. If multiple violations occur the penalties could exceed $1,500,000. Reflecting the increase in penalties, HHS fined BlueCross Blue Shield (BC&BS) of Tennessee $1.5 million in a case involving a breach that affected more than 1 million individuals (2). Locally, HHS fined a Phoenix cardiac surgery group $100,000 for posting patients' appointment information on an internet calendar that was available to the public (2).

Officials at HHS and Social Security Administration are looking into the matter (1). The $100,000 fine of the physician group in Arizona is likely a fairly sizable portion of their revenue. In contrast, the $1.5 million penalty paid by Tennessee BC&BS is less than 0.03% of their $5.6 billion revenue (3). Banner had total revenues of $4.9 billion and assets of $7.6 billion in 2012.

Richard A. Robbins, MD

References

  1. Giblin P. Medicare IDs erroneously published. Arizona Republic. Available at: http://www.azcentral.com/news/arizona/articles/20140224medicare-ids-erroneously-published.html (accessed 2/27/14).
  2. Anderson H. Arizona practice gets $100k HIPAA fine. Available at: http://www.govinfosecurity.com/arizona-practice-gets-100k-hipaa-fine-a-4686 (accessed 2/27/14).
  3. Flessner D. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee earns record $221 million. Chattanooga Times Free Press Available at: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/apr/30/bluecross-earns-record-221-million/?business (accessed 2/27/14).
  4. Ernst & Young. Banner Health Consolidated Financial Statements. Available at: https://www.bannerhealth.com/NR/rdonlyres/DD3E9650-00D6-4385-B12B-E96BBC4E9917/67703/_BannerHealthconsolidated201211_Final.pdf (accessed 2/27/14).

Reference as: Robbins RA. Banner prints social security numbers. Southwest J Pulm Crit Care. 2014;8(2):140-1. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13175/swjpcc027-14 PDF