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Tamra Durfee is a CISO at Fortified Health Security in Brentwood, Tennessee.

With so many threat actors targeting the healthcare industry, cybersecurity is an organizational issue, and buy-in must start at the top.

Winning strategies for getting C-suite buy-in for healthcare cybersecurity | Viewpoint

By 2050, it's estimated that 139 million people worldwide will have dementia, but by today's standards, 60% will be undiagnosed. It's clear that there's a significant gap in dementia detection and care, but what can your organization do about it?

Get perspectives from clinical leaders and neuroscience experts about the underlying causes and consequences of these gaps, practical opportunities to address them, and a proven roadmap that shows how leading health systems have successfully transformed their dementia screening and care processes.

Closing the Dementia Care Gap: Expert Insights and Proven Strategies for Health Systems

Mehmet Oz, MD, has been one of America’s most famous doctors for years, and now he’s poised to take oversight of the Medicare and Medicaid programs.

President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that he has nominated Oz to lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. It’s the latest in a series of unconventional cabinet picks for Trump, including his nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

 his pick, Trump touted the prospect of Oz and Kennedy working together to lead the nation’s health policy. The health department includes the CMS.

“Dr. Oz will work closely with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to take on the illness industrial complex, and all the horrible chronic diseases left in its wake,” Trump said.

Concerns mount over prospect of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. leading HHS

A cardiothoracic surgeon who once led the heart institute at New York Presbyterian Medical Center, Oz gained fame through frequent appearances on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show. He later had his own show which ran for 13 years. He stepped away from the show to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022, and he lost to current U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa.

“Our broken Healthcare system harms everyday Americans, and crushes our country’s budget,” Trump said in his announcement. “Dr. Oz will be a leader in disease prevention, so we get the best results in the world for every dollar we spend on healthcare in our Great Country. He will also cut waste in fraud within our country’s most expensive Government Agency.”

Like some of Trump’s other choices for top Cabinet posts, including Kennedy, Oz brings no experience running a large, government organization.

 on X, Oz said he welcomed the opportunity.“I am honored to be nominated by @realDonaldTrump to lead CMS. I look forward to serving my country to Make America Healthy Again under the leadership of HHS Secretary @RobertKennedyJr.,” Oz wrote.

 on X that he is “very excited” by the choice of Oz and thanked Trump for an “outstanding nomination.”

“Welcome Dr​. Oz to ​The Avengers,” Kennedy wrote.

The CMS’s programs touch the lives of 160 million people, or roughly 1 in 2 Americans, through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the Marketplaces.

The head of the CMS requires Senate confirmation, and with a relatively narrow margin in the Senate, Oz would need to hold onto the support of all Republican senators if most Democrats vote against the pick. Republicans are slated to hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., offered a 

“Running Medicare and Medicaid for over 100 million Americans isn't like hosting a daytime talk show,” Warren wrote. “Dr. Oz is another rich guy who doesn't care if your health care costs go up or an insurance company denies you coverage. These decisions have life and death consequences.”

Rep. Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat, assailed the nomination of Oz.

“Given the crucial importance of this agency, I am alarmed that President-elect Trump has chosen a TV celebrity without the experience or background to lead it,” Pallone said in a statement Tuesday. “Unfortunately, this nomination further demonstrates that Trump is not concerned about Americans’ health care.”

“By nominating both RFK, Jr. and Dr. Oz, Trump is doubling down on leaders that peddle in dangerous misinformation that endangers public health,” Pallone said.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., is a physician and he offered a statement of support for Oz. Cassidy will serve as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee next year.

“It has been over a decade since a physician has been at the helm of CMS, and I look forward to discussing his priorities,” Cassidy 

 on X. “This is a great opportunity to help patients and implement conservative health reforms.”

An interesting vote to watch in the Senate could involve David McCormick, the Republican Senate nominee from Pennsylvania. The Associated Press and other outlets have called McCormick the victor in his race against longtime U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., but Casey has not conceded and 

. McCormick narrowly lost to Oz in the 2022 Senate Republican primary.

Oz may be able to count a vote from Sen. Fetterman, 

Fetterman told CNN that he could support Oz if he makes a commitment to preserve Medicare and Medicaid, and he reiterated that in a 

“If Dr. Oz is about protecting and preserving Medicare and Medicaid, I’m voting for the dude,” Fetterman wrote.

Oz brings credentials as a physician to the post, unlike Kennedy, who doesn’t have a medical or scientific background. 

Healthcare leaders have denounced Trump’s choice of Kennedy

 to lead the health department, citing his vaccine skepticism and lack of experience in health or science.

Still, Oz received plenty of scrutiny during his years hosting his television show. Critics bashed Oz for pushing what he touted as miracle cures for weight loss on his show. In 

, researchers found “believable evidence” for only a third of the recommendations on “The Dr. Oz Show.”

Jonathan Reiner, MD, a professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine & Health Sciences, notes Trump’s choice of Oz is “another odd appointment.”

“True, Oz is a doctor, but the CMS post is something more suited for a policy wonk,” Reiner 

 on X. “Before assuming her post, the current administrator, Chiquita Brooks-LaSure was deputy director for policy at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight within CMS, and earlier at HHS as director of coverage policy.”

Annie Andrews, MD, who ran for Congress in 2022, assailed the Oz nomination on the heels of Trump’s choice of Kennedy to lead the health department.

“If you asked any doctor, any reasonable doctor in this country, who, like, the worst two people for these jobs would be, these would be two people on the top of the list,” Andrews said in a video she posted to X.

Andrews said cuts to Medicare or Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals would potentially disrupt healthcare.

“Our healthcare system is built around the existence of the Medicaid and Medicare programs. Doctors, offices and hospitals rely on funding from these two programs to keep their doors open,” Andrews said.

Hospitals and physicians have both bemoaned Medicare reimbursements. Hospitals have said 

Medicare and Medicaid don’t offer sufficient reimbursements

Doctors and their trade groups have assailed CMS for continually cutting reimbursements to doctors, saying the cuts threaten access to care and could spur some doctors to opt against seeing Medicare patients. Physicians and hospitals have called on CMS and Congress to come up with a better payment structure for doctors.

Medicare 2025 payment cuts to doctors are finalized, and physicians are fuming

Trump has said he has no plans to cut Medicare, and some analysts have expressed doubts that he will impose cuts to beneficiaries.

Seema Verma served as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services during the Trump administration. 

 last month that she didn’t foresee Medicare cuts under Trump, saying, “He’s very protective of the program.”

When it comes to Medicaid, Verma said Trump would definitely give more deference to the states regarding Medicare, and he’d be focused on seeing money go to those in need.

The famed heart surgeon, television host and former Senate candidate would oversee the huge agency. Trump said he’d be a good partner to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the HHS nominee.

Topic

From TV to CMS? Trump picks Dr. Oz to run Medicare and Medicaid, and some aren’t applauding.

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Combat Revenue Leakage: Strategies for Healthcare Providers to Optimize Revenue

The Health Infrastructure Security and Accountability Act (HISAA), introduced in the U.S. Senate last month, is a big step forward in addressing the monumental cybersecurity challenges the healthcare sector faces. 

While we can debate whether the specific proposals in the bill are the best ones to drive change, it is encouraging to see lawmakers taking action to address the gaps that many healthcare organizations have in their cybersecurity controls and risk management practices.

While certainly there are organizations who are following industry best cybersecurity practices, the reality is that many others are not. Cyberattacks on healthcare organizations include devastating ransomware attacks that create major disruptions in healthcare services and data breaches of highly sensitive electronic protected health information, causing significant harm to patients.

Healthcare providers – and their business associates, including digital health and health IT companies - must ensure they are safeguarding patient information if they plan to create, receive, transmit or store it. Furthermore, if they are relying on technology to deliver services, they must ensure these systems are available and maintain their integrity. 

Creating mechanisms to ensure all healthcare organizations are meeting cybersecurity standards is essential to reduce the number of breaches and ransomware attacks. This bill aims to do just that.

Cybersecurity and risk management issues aren’t confined to one corner of the sector—it's a challenge for the entire system, and it’s about time we all moved in the same direction. As we saw with the Change Healthcare and OneBlood ransomware attacks, a disruption to the supply chain can have a rippling effect on the entire sector.

The Change Healthcare cyberattack affected 100 million Americans

The American Hospital Association has repeatedly argued that much of the challenge in healthcare cybersecurity lies in software vendors shortcomings. HISAA seems to recognize this point, as it would require that business associates covered under HIPAA comply with the same standards that providers must adhere to. HISAA also includes incentives in the form of funding from the government, however, this support is reserved for hospitals.

The bill takes several important steps to strengthen healthcare cybersecurity:

Establishes minimum and enhanced standards

: HISAA sets minimum cybersecurity standards for covered entities and business associates, with enhanced standards for those deemed critical to national security. The standards are also set to be updated at least every two years.

: While healthcare organizations are already required to conduct risk analyses under HIPAA, HISAA expands this to include risks related to business associates, strengthening the entire supply chain.

: Organizations will need to create and stress-test incident response, business continuity, and disaster recovery plans to ensure they can bounce back quickly when (not if) something goes wrong.

: CEOs and CISOs will be held formally accountable by attesting that their organization complies with the security standards—and they’ll have to post this attestation on their website for all to see.

: Organizations will need to bring in third-party auditors to assess compliance with the minimum standards, and certain entities will have to submit those results to HHS annually.

: The bill mandates that HHS audit at least 20 covered entities or business associates per year, keeping everyone on their toes.

Funding for rural and urban safety net hospitals

: HISAA allocates $1.3 billion in funding to help hospitals—particularly smaller, rural, and urban safety net hospitals—implement better cybersecurity practices.

The funding piece is a good start, but let’s be clear—it’s not enough. While $1.3 billion sounds like a lot, it’s still insufficient when you consider the sheer size of the sector and the financial struggles of many organizations, especially non-profits. We need more funding, particularly for those organizations that don’t have the resources to meet even the most basic cybersecurity controls.

One thing that would really move the needle is providing incentives, like we saw with the Meaningful Use/Promoting Interoperability programs, to motivate organizations to invest in cybersecurity. Fines and penalties alone aren't enough to spur the kind of proactive investment we need.

It’s also crucial that smaller healthcare organizations—especially critical access hospitals and rural health centers—get ongoing support. These organizations are vital to our health system, and they simply don’t have the resources to meet the new standards without additional help.

I’m also glad to see the bill includes third-party audits, but we need to make sure these auditors are vetted and certified, much like the Department of Defense’s Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program does. Otherwise, we risk inconsistent or subpar assessments.

And it’s good to see there might finally be some accountability at senior levels of the organization, with proposed requirements to have the CEO attest that the organization meets the minimum cybersecurity requirements. 

Just as Sarbanes-Oxley raised the stakes for financial accountability in the early 2000s, this legislation is likely the beginning of a new era of accountability in cybersecurity. When senior executives are held responsible, we can expect to see more organizations take these requirements seriously.

Notably, the bill falls short on providing safe harbor to those organizations who are meeting recognized security standards and meeting HIPAA requirements, such as on-going risk analysis and risk management. 

Healthcare organizations that do everything they can to prevent, detect and stop an attack, and who have strong resiliency plans in place, should not be penalized or face class action lawsuits if they are attacked by criminals, who are often supported or harbored by adversarial nation states. These types of laws already exist in some states, such as in Ohio, which passed the Data Protection Act in 2018.

Healthcare leaders should not wait for this bill to become law in order to act. Threats to healthcare continue to grow in both frequency and severity. 

Healthcare breaches and ransomware attacks are becoming more impactful to operations, revenue, brand reputation and most importantly patient safety. It should not take regulations to implement what is already required under HIPAA and already considered best practice for healthcare organizations. 

As with any patient safety issue, or threat to the business, leaders should ensure that their organizations are protecting themselves and that they have long term strategies in place to assess and mitigate high risks. Unfortunately, while this is obvious to some, others will continue to ignore the issue, or simply not be able to afford to address it. 

Therefore, whether it’s HISAA or some other bill, we need some catalyst to drive change and help our healthcare industry to achieve a more secure, compliant and resilient state.

Chief Healthcare Executive® presents a discussion on cybersecurity in healthcare from three of the top experts in the field. 

Cybersecurity issues aren’t confined to one corner of the sector—it's a challenge for the entire system, and it’s about time we all moved in the same direction.

New cybersecurity bill is a step in the right direction, but needs more work | Viewpoint

There will be some doctors in the House in the next congressional session.

Several physicians and dentists succeeded in their re-election campaigns. A couple of physicians will be joining the House in the new congressional session.

Here’s a rundown of some congressional races involving physicians where the contests have been called.

Election Day 2024: Hospitals, emergency leaders plan for possibility of unrest

a Texas Republican and a dentist, won re-election in the 36th District, the 

 reported. He has been in the House since 2015.

a California Democrat, was re-elected to the House. Bera represents the 6th Congressional District, which includes Sacramento, and has been in the House since 2013. He’s the longest serving Indian-American in Congress.

 a Georgia Republican, retained his seat in the 1st Congressional District, according to the 

. Carter, who owned a pharmacy for over 30 years, will begin a sixth term in January.

, a Republican, retained his seat in Tennessee’s 4th Congressional District. He will begin his eighth term in January, the 

, a Florida Republican, is returning, the 

 reported. A surgeon for 25 years, he secured a fifth term.

, a Tennessee Republican, held onto his seat in a contest against former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry. An emergency physician, Green has served in the House since 2019.

, a Maryland Republican, won re-election, the 

, a Texas Republican, secured re-election to the House, which was expected since he ran unopposed. Jackson, who served as the White House physician under President Donald Trump’s administration, will begin a third term.

, a Republican from Pennsylvania, won re-election, 

. Joyce will begin his fourth term in January.

, a Georgia Republican, claimed victory in his re-election bid, the 

, a North Carolina Republican, kept his seat in the state’s 3rd congressional district, the Associated Press said. Murphy is a lead sponsor of 

a bill to avert cuts in Medicare payments to doctors

, a California Democrat, was re-elected in the state’s 25th Congressional District. An emergency physician, Ruiz was first elected to the House in 2012.

, a Democrat from Washington state, won re-election in the 8th Congressional District. A pediatrician, she was first elected in 2018. The race was called Thursday.

, R-N.J., won re-election to his seat in the Garden State’s 2nd Congressional district. He’ll begin his fourth term in January.

 a Democrat, captured a House seat representing Oregon’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes part of Portland. A pulmonolgist with Kaiser Permanente, Dexter defeated Republican Joanna Harbour in the contest for an open seat. U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat, is retiring.

, a Democrat, defeated Republican Tad Jude to win an open seat in Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District. An OB-GYN who practiced for more than 20 years, Morrison will take the seat held by Rep. Dean Phillips, who didn’t seek re-election.

, a Democrat and an OB-GYN, lost to Republican Tony Wied in a race for the state’s 8th Congressional District. 

, an Indiana Republican, opted against seeking re-election. He’d been in the House since 2011.

, a Texas Republican, is retiring after serving in the House for 22 years.

., a Georgia Republican, also opted against a bid for re-election. His fourth term will be his last.

, an Ohio Republican and a podiatric physician, opted against seeking another term. He was first elected in 2012.

Four physicians are serving in the U.S. Senate, and they weren’t on the ballot this year. The four doctors in the Senate are U.S. Sens. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.); Bill Cassidy (R-La.); Rand Paul (R-Ky.); and John Barrasso (R-Wyoming).

Several physicians won re-election to new terms in the House of Representatives. And a couple of freshmen physicians will join the House.

Election 2024: Doctors keep seats in the House

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Tamra Durfee

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