As expected, the Federal Government is aware of the unexpected impact that COVID 19 is having and how this affects HealthCare Professionals and organizations as it relates to other issues. In response to the same, CMS has extended the submission dates to the following programs:

A new study whose results were published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents has found early evidence that the combination of hydroxychloroquine, a popular anti-malaria drug known under the trade name Plaqenuil, and antibiotic azithromycin (aka Zithromax or Azithrocin) could be especially effective in treating the COVID-19 coronavirus and reducing the duration of the virus in patients.

The researchers performed a study on 30 confirmed COVID-19 patients, treating each with either hydroxychloroquine on its own, a combination of the medicine with the antibiotic, as well as a control group that received neither. The study was conducted after reports from the treatment of Chinese patients indicated that this particular combo had efficacy in shortening the duration of infection in patients.

The Following document contains information on payor policies enacted or modified in light of the COVID-19 crisis. Please note that due to the constant influx of new information, this guide is not fully comprehensive and some of its contents may be subject to change. We recommend monitoring for updates from the Florida Department of Health, the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, their contracted payors, and from the FMA. Nevertheless, we hope that these resources will help physicians navigate changing payor policies in this time of extraordinary uncertainty and need. Physicians with specific questions or that need any assistance with navigating through the COVID-19 epidemic are also welcome to the call the Florida Medical Association for direct assistance. Our in-house experts stand ready and willing to help assist you.

The President of the USA, yesterday announced an Emergency Declaration for the whole country.

This has given the centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) the opportunity to broadened access to Medicare telehealth services, the purpose being to avoid patients having to travel to a healthcare facility. These policy changes build on the regulatory flexibilities granted under the Emergency Declaration, Medicare has expanded the benefits on a temporary and emergency basis under the 1135 waiver and Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act.

Telehealth, telemedicine and related terms generally refer to the exchange of medical information from one site to another through electronic communication to improve a patient’s health. This will help ensure Medicare beneficiaries, who are at a higher risk for COVID-19, can visit with their doctor from their home without having to go to a doctor’s office or hospital which puts themselves and others at risk.

Under this new waiver, Medicare patients will be able to receive a specific set of services through telehealth including:

A couple of years back I met with someone from a communist country. Before starting the conversation, he made sure that we both had our phones off and that the battery was removed. His actions surprised me as all we were going to talk about was based on actuaries and trends of illnesses is based on the physical location of the patients. He explained that based on his Government’s technical capabilities and manipulation of data it was a matter of survival to ensure that conversations were not recorded.

In the United States, we have been lucky and naïve as we continue to depend on mobile devices to simplify our lives without considering the consequences of this dependence.

Most of the time we do our research and posts accordingly, however, cyber-observers in their “29 Must-Know Cybersecurity Statistics for 2020” post did such a good job that the best thing we can do for our readers is to refer to the same for information regarding 2020 Cybersecurity trends.

For example, the top five cybersecurity trends identified were:

1. Worldwide spending on cybersecurity is going to reach $133.7 billion in 2022. (Gartner)
2. 68% of business leaders feel their cybersecurity risks are increasing.
3. Data breaches exposed 4.1 billion records in the first half of 2019. (RiskBased)
4. 71% of breaches were financially motivated and 25% were motivated by espionage. (Verizon)
5. 52% of breaches featured hacking, 28% involved malware and 32–33% included phishing or social engineering, respectively. (Verizon)

Another key piece of information presented included the most common causes of a data breach:

Cybercrime could be defined as criminal activities involving the use of computers and/or the Internet. As the FBI states in their web page: “The FBI is the lead federal agency for investigating cyber-attacks by criminals, overseas adversaries, and terrorists. The threat is incredibly serious—and growing. Cyber intrusions are becoming more commonplace, more dangerous, and more sophisticated.”

In fact, the 2017 Cybercrime Report posted by the Herjavec Group, reported that cybercrime damages will cost the world $6 trillion annually by 2021. Additional highlights of this report included:

Cybercrime costs include damage and destruction of data, stolen money, lost productivity, theft…