Can Facebook see your medical records? | Philly Health Insider
Plus, IBX employees encouraged to avoid branded clothing
This week, we have an exclusive look at a lawsuit claiming Jefferson Health gave Facebook access to private health information inside its patient portal. Plus:
IBX incognito: Independence Blue Cross CEO encouraged employees to eschew branded clothing after the UnitedHealthcare CEO’s murder
Nurses speak out: Why Chestnut Hill Hospital nurses and technicians picketed
New micro-hospital: ChristianaCare has chosen a site for its new $50 million facility
Pop quiz: Is Inperium’s new valuation of Philadelphia’s Resources for Human Development higher or lower than $150 million? (See answer below or here)
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— Aubrey Whelan and Alison McCook, Inquirer health reporters, @aubreyjwhelan.
Consider this scenario: Your patient used their private patient portal to ask you about their diabetes. Soon after, they keep seeing online ads for diabetes medications. Is this a coincidence, or a privacy violation?
A Jefferson Health patient says this happened to him, and is claiming Jefferson violated his privacy in a new federal class action lawsuit by enabling Facebook to track his confidential health information and match it to social media profiles. (Jefferson has denied using Facebook’s tracking technology within its password-secured patient portals.)
Similar accusations have been leveled at Main Line Health, Redeemer Health, and Tower Health.
This is unchartered territory, as patient protection laws were written before the age of social media networks and mobile apps. Reporters Sarah Gantz and Abraham Gutman have an inside look at HIPAA concerns involving now-ubiquitous third-party tracking technology, and how local hospital systems’ use of Facebook’s tracking technology has changed over time.
The latest news to pay attention to
After UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s murder prompted an online flood of negative comments towards the industry, his counterpart at Independence Blue Cross, Gregory E. Deavens, sent an email to employees encouraging them to avoid wearing clothing with the IBX or AmeriHealth brand in public.
Anyone driving through Northwest Philly last Wednesday may have spotted nurses and technicians waving “Safe Staffing” signs in front of Chestnut Hill Hospital (managed by Temple Health), as nearly 300 picketed over patient loads. Aubrey has more on the negotiations over the nurses’ first contract after voting to unionize last year.
ChristianaCare has settled on Aston as a location for the first of two micro-hospitals it plans for Delaware County. Reporter Harold Brubaker presents details on Delaware’s largest health system’s plan for the 10-bed, $50 million facility.
Philadelphia’s Resources for Human Development is now valued at $134 million, according to the fine print of a new bond offering. Its would-be acquirer, Inperium, hopes to raise $172.6 million in tax-free municipal bonds as it attempts to acquire the struggling health and human services nonprofit. Harold has the ins and outs of the financial maneuvering needed to make the deal happen.
This week’s big number: 400,000
That’s how many patients of the UPenn Health System are part of a new deal with insurer Independence Blue Cross that governs how much the nonprofit health system will be reimbursed for providing health-care services. Details on rate increases were not disclosed.
But here’s one thing we do know: The new agreement has no end date. Although past agreements have run between three and five years, an IBX executive said the latest could last up to 10 years.
Between February and October, state inspectors visited Main Line Health’s Lankenau Medical Center six times, including after the hospital failed to report a suspected case of child sexual assault, which we reported first in August. Sarah outlines what we know about the other potential safety lapses.
Ask cancer experts what type they fear the most, and odds are many will say pancreatic cancer. With no routine screening and symptoms that can seem like indigestion or the flu, most patients aren’t diagnosed until the cancer has become hard to treat.
What if it didn’t have to be that way?
Sanjay Reddy, division chief for surgical oncology at Fox Chase Cancer Center and co-director of Fox Chase’s pancreatic cancer institute, talked to Sarah about how emerging findings could lead to earlier diagnoses, when the cancer may be more likely to respond to treatment.
Tower Health has a new CEO: Michael Stern (currently Tower’s president and chief operating officer) takes over in February for P. Sue Perrotty, who stepped in nearly four years ago when the Berks County health system was in dire financial straits. Perrotty will continue to serve on the board of directors.
A few months ago, we were all over the big news when a local biotech, Adaptimmune, earned FDA approval for Tecelra, the first engineered cell therapy to treat solid tumors, and Alison got an inside look as it ramped up for patient orders.
Last week, the company announced it had administered Tecelra to its first patient with synovial sarcoma.
But the life of a biotech is never easy. Just last month, Adaptimmune revealed that it was planning to reduce its 500-plus workforce by 33%, with the goal of breaking even in 2027, and restructure to prioritize treatments for sarcomas, as well as ongoing research.
📮Working at a biotech isn’t for the faint of heart. Do you have the stomach for it? For a chance to be featured in this newsletter, email us back.
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