- Pulse Points
- Posts
- 🧑‍💻 Kaiser data breach may have affected over 13M
🧑‍💻 Kaiser data breach may have affected over 13M
Noncompete ban, Providence to pay $200M in class-action, and more!
Pulse Points
May 01, 2024
In this edition:
🧑‍💻 Kaiser data breach may have affected over 13M
⛔️ FTC bans noncompete agreements
📉 2023 experienced a fall in birth rates
đź’µ Providence must pay $200M in payroll cheating lawsuit
💨 Wildfire smoke kills over 16,000 each year…and rising
And more!
Kaiser data breach may have affected over 13M
Kaiser Permanente reported a data breach that could affect millions of its patients.
The Bay Area health care giant said that when members and patients accessed its websites or mobile applications, data sent to third-party technology companies via web cookies might have included personal information.
Kaiser Permanente is not aware of any misuse of any member’s or patient’s personal information…nevertheless, out of an abundance of caution, we are informing approximately 13.4 million current and former members and patients who accessed our websites and mobile applications. We apologize that this incident occurred.”
FTC bans non-competes
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) voted 3-2 on April 23 to ban non-compete agreements for workers in for-profit companies — a decision that will apply to many employed physicians.
The rule prohibits employers from taking the following actions:
Entering into or attempting to enter into a non-compete clause
Enforcing or attempting to enforce a non-compete clause
Representing that a worker is subject to a non-compete clause
Employers will also be required to notify workers already bound by noncompetes that they will not be enforced.
The FTC ruling will expand job opportunities for many physicians employed by for-profit health systems, private equity firms, or other corporations who were previously constrained by noncompete clauses.
Specialty Spotlight:
Pediatrics
Expanding Care for Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
Pediatric gastroenterologist Maria Oliva-Hemker, vice dean for faculty and director of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Johns Hopkins has received funding that has led to innovative research and treatment in pediatric inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Funding gave me the ability to breathe, pause, try new ideas, and plan,” she says. “Young faculty need flexibility to pursue unexplored pathways.” Such funding supports time to develop new programs and research, stretch grant funding, and kickstart pilot programs, she notes.
Recently, Oliva-Hemker’s colleague Tony Guerrerio established a specialty clinic for children with very-early-onset IBD, a growing subgroup within the IBD population.
That’s the difference Richard and Audrey Stermer wanted when they made their gift in appreciation of the care their older children received from Oliva-Hemker and others at the Children’s Center. “We know how painful these diseases are,” Audrey says. “It robs them of the joy of being a child.”
Under Oliva-Hemker’s leadership, the Children’s Center has been part of multiple international collaborative pediatric IBD studies, including the 2017 RISK study, the largest prospective trial that followed 1,000 children with Crohn’s disease over a five-year period to compare those who received immunotherapy to those who did not.