COVID-19 vaccine distribution is underway in the U.S., but how are those efforts going? I’m Jeff Lagasse with Healthcare Finance News, and we’ll provide updates and touch on other developments in this week’s Top Stories.
Google Cloud has launched a new solution called Intelligent Vaccine Impact, which places Google on a list of tech companies that are creating tools to support the national coronavirus vaccination effort. In MobiHealthNews, (https://www.mobihealthnews.com/news/google-cloud-launches-vaccine-distribution-tool-local-governments) we see that the tool is designed to help regional and local governments vaccinate their populations by supplying them with a central location to share vaccine information, schedule inoculation appointments, track vaccine distribution data and forecast COVID-19 cases. This enables government public health leaders to base policy decisions on machine learning and artificial intelligence “what if” analyses, aggregating population data to help stakeholders visualize how effective infection-control measures could be in stopping the spread of the virus.
And speaking of vaccines, next week the federal government will be sending one million doses directly to 6,500 pharmacies in addition to the 10.5 million doses already earmarked for states, tribes and territories. According to Healthcare Finance News, (https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/6500-pharmacies-get-1-million-doses-covid-19-vaccine) the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program will begin on February 11, and because supply is currently limited, consumers are asked to check their state guidelines on eligibility and to make an appointment. Distribution is based on area population and equity considerations, to make sure harder-to-reach, high-risk populations and communities are targeted.
Finally this week, Montefiore Medical Center is notifying patients of a recent security breach that involved illegal access to HIPAA protected health information by a former employee. HealthcareITNews reports (https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/ehr-snooping-montefiore-leads-security-breach) that the incident occurred between June and November 2020, at which time an investigation was launched and the employee fired, with the case referred to law enforcement for possible criminal prosecution. Officials say the employee accessed a variety of patient information, potentially including names, addresses, dates of birth, medical record numbers and the last four digits of patients' Social Security numbers. Montefiore will provide identity theft protection services from IDX at no cost to patients affected by this breach.
I’m Jeff Lagasse with Healthcare Finance News, and this has been Top Stories.