photo by: LMH Health

LMH Health, 325 Maine St., is pictured in May 2021.

Health care data hacks continue to make the news, and they’re happening close to home. You don’t have to look any farther than Liberty Hospital in Kansas City. On Dec. 19, 2023, the hospital announced it was experiencing a “communications systems outage,” which was later confirmed to be a cybersecurity incident. It forced Liberty Hospital to cancel appointments and transfer patients to other metro hospitals. People seeking emergency care were redirected as well.

The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights oversees how companies protect health data and requires that health care providers report breaches of protected information. In 2023, HHS reported the highest number of major health data attacks ever; the attacks affected 133 million people.

Health care data is valuable. Michael Williams, vice president and chief information officer at LMH Health, said that bad actors know it can sometimes be much more valuable than financial data.

“If you’re trying to impersonate someone, you can use a Social Security number to apply for a credit card,” Williams said. “When scammers have health data, they know more than just your name and date of birth. You can change your bank information, but you can’t change who you are.”

LMH Health has not fallen prey to any cyberattack or had any kind of patient health care data breach. Williams attributes much of that to the systems that the information technology team has implemented.

“We’ve got strong protocols in place to help ensure that bad actors aren’t getting malicious emails through that would cause harm,” he said. “We block more than 90% of all email that comes to LMH Health. Most of the email that gets blocked includes spam, email from (a disreputable) source or something that contains malicious code. Some days, it’s even closer to 98%. We’re blocking anything that could be harmful before it even hits the system.”

How does LMH Health reach out?

With cyberattacks occurring with more frequency, how can you be sure that a text or email from LMH Health is the real thing? Williams said that LMH communicates with patients through a variety of methods, including phone calls, texts and email, but it’s good to be cautious.

“People can mask their caller ID and it isn’t hard to make it look as if a phone call is coming from LMH Health,” he said. “Our teams will verify your name and date of birth, and we should know enough detail that the call isn’t coming from out of the woods. You should also be able to ask questions of us too.”

Williams explained that patients may also receive calls from Assistency, an agency LMH Health partners with for patients to pay their bills, get answers to billing questions and make payment arrangements.

“Assistency reaches out by phone to patients who have any bills, whether they’re current or overdue,” he said. “You should be able to question them and verify they have the right bill. They should be able to verify the dates you were seen.”

Emails patients receive from LMH Health come from an email address that ends in LMH.org and include a link toward the end to opt out or remove yourself from future email correspondence. Hover over any links in the body of the email to inspect what web address you’ll be sent to. If it looks fishy, err on the side of caution.

“Look closely, as bad actors will use email addresses that look similar to trick you. Make sure it’s from lmh.org instead of lnh.org,” Williams said. “Does the hyperlink look like the expected website domain? If it feels too good to be true, it probably is.”

Reaching your care goals

This year, you also can expect technology to make your personal healthcare management simpler. If it’s time for your Medicare annual wellness visit, breast cancer or cervical cancer screenings, you may receive a text or an email that will allow you to schedule your appointment right from your device. These notifications are made possible through LMH’s new partnership with Notable Health.

“Notable uses artificial intelligence to review electronic health records to determine where gaps exist,” Williams said. “We then reach out to patients through text and email so they can schedule their recommended care with the click of a button.”

LMH Health began using Notable in February to reach out to patients overdue for an annual wellness visit. The text reads, “Your LMH Health provider wants to support you in achieving your health goals. Please follow the link below so we can further assist you.” When you click on the link, you are taken to a site that provides an online option at an LMH.org address to schedule a visit or receive a call from LMH, or gives the phone number to contact your primary care clinic.

LMH Health is also rolling out a new pre-registration process with the appointment reminders patients receive by email or text. If you receive a link from checkin.lmh.org, you can verify and update your information to save time when you arrive.

If you’re concerned that a phone call, email or text is malicious, call the LMH Health clinic or department directly.

“Ask us if we really reached out to you. Our teams should be able to tell you if we sent you a reminder,” Williams said. “Our number one priority is to protect your data. We have technical solutions in place — more than our regulatory bodies require — and we do a lot of education to help our staff understand why it’s important and how to protect you.”

— Autumn Bishop is the marketing manager and content strategist at LMH Health.