吃瓜不打烊

Skip to main content

The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.

Subscribe Follow Us
  • Trump 2.0

    Trump 2.0

    • Agency Watch
    • State Watch
    • Rural Health Payout
  • Public Health

    Public Health

    • Vaccines
    • CDC & Disease
    • Environmental Health
    All Public Health
  • Audio Reports

    Audio Reports

    • What the Health?
    • Healthcare Helpline
    • 吃瓜不打烊 Minute
    • An Arm and a Leg
    • Health Hub
    • HealthQ
    • Silence in Sikeston
    • Epidemic
    All Audio
  • Special Reports

    Special Reports

    • Bill Of The Month
    • Common Ground
    • Diagnosis: Debt
    • The Body Shops
    • Priced Out
    • Guns, Race, and Profit
    • Broken Rehab
    • Dead Zone
    • Denied
    • Opioid Settlement Tracking
    • Eleven Minutes
    All Special Reports
  • More Topics

    More Topics

    • Elections
    • Healthcare Costs
    • Insurance
    • Prescription Drugs
    • Health Industry
    • Immigration
    • Reproductive Health
    • Technology
    • Rural Health
    • Race and Health
    • Aging
    • Mental Health
    • Affordable Care Act
    • Medicare
    • Medicaid
    • Children’s Health
    All Topics

  • Medicare Advantage Billing Probe
  • School Vaccine Mandates
  • Weight Loss Drugs Coverage
  • Opioid Settlement Money
  • Abortion Pill Access

Morning Briefing

Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations

  • Email

Thursday, Apr 7 2016

Full Issue

MedStar Health Denies Report That Flagged Security Flaw Contributed To Hack

The Associated Press reported that the company was warned as early as 2007 about a system weakness. But MedStar says that was not the cause of the recent cyberattack on its system. In other health IT news, hospital software that is supposed to help identify dangerous drug interactions isn't working as well as it should, a report finds.

MedStar Health Inc. said Wednesday that hackers who seriously disrupted its operations and held some data hostage did not exploit software vulnerabilities that were the subjects of warnings in 2007 and 2010 to break into its corporate network. The hospital chain released a new statement after The Associated Press reported Tuesday that hackers broke into a corporate computer server exploiting flaws that had persisted for years on the network. The AP's report was attributed to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to discuss the findings publicly. MedStar said the new information came from Symantec Corp., which it hired to investigate. (Abdollah, 4/6)

MedStar Health is disputing a report that the hospital company should have known as early as 2007 about weaknesses in its system that contributed to a massive cyberattack that encrypted its files. (McDaniels, 4/6)

Medical errors are estimated to be the third-highest cause of death in the country. Experts and patient safety advocates are trying to change that. But at least one of the tools that鈥檚 been considered a fix isn鈥檛 yet working as well as it should, suggests a report released Thursday. That鈥檚 according to the Leapfrog Group, a nonprofit organization known for rating hospitals on patient safety. Leapfrog conducted a voluntary survey of almost 1,800 hospitals to determine how many use computerized-physician-order-entry systems to make sure patients are prescribed and receive the correct drugs, and that medications won鈥檛 cause harm. The takeaway? While a vast majority of hospitals surveyed had some kind of computer-based medication system in place, the systems still fall short in catching possible problems. (Luthra, 4/7)

This is part of the Morning Briefing, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
Newsletter icon

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Stay informed by signing up for the Morning Briefing and other emails:

Recent Morning Briefings

  • Friday, July 31
  • Thursday, July 30
  • Wednesday, July 29
  • Tuesday, July 28
  • Monday, July 27
  • Friday, July 24
More Morning Briefings
RSS Feeds
  • Podcasts
  • Special Reports
  • Morning Briefing
  • 吃瓜不打烊
  • Republish Our Content
  • Contact Us

Follow Us

  • RSS

Sign up for emails

Join our email list for regular updates based on your personal preferences.

Sign up
  • Editorial Policy
  • Privacy Policy

漏 2026 KFF