Cyberattacks problem for small hospitals

pNEWPORT Small hospitals have been a target of cyber criminals hospital district CEO Kim Manus told Pend Oreille Hospital District No 1 commissioners at their regular meeting Thursday July 24ppCyber security has become a huge thing within the region Manus said Newport Hospital and Health Services belongs to a rural hospital The Rural Collaborative with other small rural hospitals Last year there were four incidents within that groupppTheyre small hospitals theyre like us Manus said Some of them were down and had no access to systems for several weeksppWhile Newport is constantly probed by hackers it hasnt had an incident yetppIt is scary Manus saidppBecause of the four claims generated by cyberattacks the groups insurance carrier dropped excess coverage for the collaborative That means the group will have to decide whether to purchase new insurance in excess of their regular insurance The insurance used to cover 21 million in excess claims and that level wasnt reached before the carrier dropped them Now the group is looking at insurance that would cover 28 million or 35 million in claims Manus said its all or nothing for the coverage meaning all the hospitals would have to agreeppManus said small hospitals are targeted because they didnt have a lot the safety measures that they should The hospital district recently hired a fulltime network security analyst to prevent a cyberattack One of the things recommended was discontinuing using thumb drives in hospital computersppNewport hospital is benefitting from long wait time for some tests in Spokane and elsewhere Manus told commissioners Some Spokane health providers have stopped scheduling some things like colonoscopies and endoscopies They were sending letters saying that such procedures couldnt be scheduled right now and to try again six months laterppWe are starting to see patients migrating out from the urban areas Manus said Were starting to see things are tight in SpokaneppSpokane keeps migrating north and Coeur dAlene is migrating west commissioners were toldppCommissioners also heard an independent auditors report from DZA Auditors and Compliance of Spokane Valley She said there were no findings of anything wrong in the financialsppIm happy to say it was a clean opinion the auditor reportedppThe hospital district had 122 days cash on hand at the end of the year the auditor said She said compared to peer hospitals Newport was on the higher endppI go to a lot of hospitals and Im begging them to get at 90 days she saidppRegarding the comparison between purchasing new equipment and depreciation of existing equipment the auditor said Newports numbers over five years came in at less than 100 meaning that Newport depreciated more than it purchasedppWhat that can indicate is aging of a facility she saidppNewport didnt have an unacceptable amount of longterm debt she saidppWhat that means is you have a strong bottom line you have strong cash and you are in a better position if you need to to take on additional debt she saidppManus spoke to the board about US Rep Michael Baumgarners recent column in The Miner about President Trumps One Big Beautiful Bill Act and its effects on MedicaidppSome of those things in the article were accurate and some were inaccurate Manus said Baumgartner said that OBBBA would not have an impact on access to health care Manus said it is reducing access to healthcareppBy 2027 patients covered by Medicaid expansion which Washington enacted years ago under the Affordable Care Act will have to prove they are eligible to keep their healthcare every six monthsppOne of the challenges we have is reaching out to patients and getting them to complete that paperwork Manus saidppShe had several other concerns about what Baumgartner wrote and would contact his office to clarify some things she thought he got wrongpp421 S Spokane Newport WA 99156509 4472433Fax 509 4479222p