The Department of Health and Human Services said it will rewrite the rules for the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act -– the federal law commonly called HIPPA that requires insurers and health systems to protect patient information – to include new provisions that address cybersecurity later this year.The department is also considering new cybersecurity requirements attached to hospitals’ Medicaid and Medicare funding.“The more prepared we are the better,” said Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm.But, she added, some hospitals will struggle to protect themselves. She is worried about rural hospitals, for example, that may have difficulty cobbling together money to properly update their cybersecurity. HHS wants more money from Congress to tackle the issue, but Palm said the agency doesn’t have a precise dollar amount its seeking.“It’s important to note that this has to come with resources,” Palm said. “We can’t set the industry up not to be able to meet requirements.”Becoming the victim of a cyberattack is costly, too. The attacks can put hospitals’ networks offline for weeks or months, forcing hospitals to turn away patients.In Chicago, Lurie hospital’s network has been offline for two weeks. The hospital, which served more than 260,000 patients last year, has established a separate call center for patients’ needs and resumed some care.On Thursday, Lurie’s surgeons operated on Jason Castillo’s 7-month-old daughter mostly by hand, without some of the high-tech devices usually used.His daughter’s planned heart surgery was postponed on Jan. 31, when the hospital found itself under cyber siege. The surgeon talked to Castillo before his daughter was wheeled in for a six-hour surgery, promising that he felt confident he could do the procedure despite the ongoing cyberattack.“She’s doing fantastic,” Castillo said of his daughter, who is now recovering at home. “It feels like a huge cloud has been lifted from our household.”Even once Lurie has restored their network, it’ll likely take months of behind-the-scenes work for the hospital to fully rebound, Callow said.“These incidents can affect everything from patient care to payroll,” Callow said. “Fully recovering can take months, it’s not simply a matter of flicking a switch and everything comes back on.”
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