The doctor is out (getting a loan)

I've mentioned a few times all the health care issues facing Portlanders these days. There are so many of them. 

Here we have a city where you can't get an ambulance, you can't get elective surgery because there are no anesthesiologists, drug addicts are O.D.'ing and dying on the streets in record numbers, the bad boys at the medical school are taking over the clinics and hospitals (eliminating protections against malpractice in the process)...

Well, now you can add another one to the list:

Desperate patients around the country have been forced to choose between paying out of pocket for essential medications or forgoing them entirely as the aftermath of a cyberattack on a major health care company stretches into its third week. 

Change Healthcare, a little-known but critical subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, detected the attack on Feb. 21. Since then, pharmacies, doctors offices and patients say their lives and work have been upended by widespread outages in systems commonly used for medical billing and insurance claims. 

According to the story in the O (behind the Paywall of Pity, alas), the problems are as acute here in Oregon as anywhere. Many doctors aren't getting paid. Some of them can't make their payrolls. Patients can't get their prescriptions.

Not to mention the extremely sensitive patient personal information that may now be in the hands of bad guys. The trouble has likely just begun.

I see that the new head of the Oregon health department is still on a lovely getting-to-know-you tour throughout the state. When she finally sits down at her desk, and before she gets too busy handing out free refrigerators to ex-cons, she and her counterparts in other states might want to figure out how the data breach happened, and how to prevent it from happening again. Obviously, the insurers aren't up to the task.