TGIF

On this Friday before the last three day weekend of the summer, the FEHBlog offers you a potpourri of information:

• The HHS Office for Civil Rights which enforces the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules issued its Summer 2019 Cybersecurity Newsletter on the topic of Managing Malicious Insider Threats. 

• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced its new Market Saturation Tool for use with detecting healthcare fraud, waste, and abuse.

Market saturation, in the present context, refers to the density of providers of a particular service within a defined geographic area relative to the number of beneficiaries receiving that service in the area. The data can be used to reveal the degree to which use of a service is related to the number of providers servicing a geographic region. There are also a number of secondary research uses for these data, but one objective of making these data public is to assist health care providers in making informed decisions about their service locations and the beneficiary population they serve.  

•  Healthcare Dive reports that telehealth provider American Well survey finding that 

• Although 66% of consumers reported they're willing to try telehealth, only 8% have actually done it.
• And, of the people interested in virtual care, 17% weren't sure if their insurance covers it, according to the survey of more than 2,000 adults.
• Additionally, two-thirds of Americans are using personal health monitoring devices and one-half have health apps.