Stay in the know with Becker's Hospital Review's weekly roundup of the nation's biggest healthcare news. Here's what you need to know this week.
1. Advocate to pay largest HIPAA settlement to date
Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care agreed to pay $5.55 million to HHS' Office for Civil Rights to settle claims that it violated HIPAA. The settlement is the biggest to-date HIPAA payment involving one entity.
2. Ex-hospital CFO claims he was fired for blowing the whistle on chairman of the board
The former CFO of Sebastopol, Calif.-based Sonoma West Medical Center sued the hospital, alleging he was fired for reporting the chairman of the board's corrupt behavior to hospital officials.
3. US News names 20 hospitals to its Honor Roll
U.S. News & World Report released its 2016-17 Best Hospitals rankings, and Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic came out on top, ousting Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital as the No. 1 hospital in the nation.
4. CMS penalizes 2.6k hospitals for high readmissions
In fiscal year 2017, CMS will withhold $528 million in Medicare reimbursements to hospitals with higher-than-expected readmission rates as part of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, reports Kaiser Health News. Click here to see the 49 hospitals facing the highest readmission penalties from Medicare.
5. NIH launches human trials for Zika vaccine
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a division of the National Institutes of Health, launched human trials to test the safety and efficacy of a potential Zika vaccine.
6. 127 hospitals sue HHS over two-midnight rule
One hundred twenty-seven short-term acute care hospitals are listed as plaintiffs in a new lawsuit against HHS over payment cuts in CMS' controversial two-midnight rule for Medicare inpatient admissions.
7. CHS to sell 12 hospitals to drive down debt
Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems plans to sell a dozen hospitals by the end of 2016 — two more than it was negotiating to divest in May.
8. Trinity Health to pay $75M to settle pension mismanagement class-action lawsuits
Trinity Health will pay $75 million to resolve allegations that it mismanaged its pension plans, putting an end to more than two dozen class-action lawsuits that have been filed against the Livonia, Mich.-based system over the past three years, according to Bloomberg BNA.
9. Banner Health suffers year's largest data breach; 3.7M affected
Cyberattackers gained access to "a limited number" of Banner Health computer servers, including the servers that process payment card information where food and beverages are sold at the Phoenix-based health system. Overall, 3.7 million patients, Banner health plan members and beneficiaries, food and beverage customers and providers, may be affected, making it the largest healthcare data breach of 2016.