📶 Your internet plan is expensive: Call your ISP and ask to talk to a “retention specialist.” They’re the folks who can cut you the best deal. Heads-up: Most promos are only valid for a year, so you’ll have to renegotiate then.
A new hospital cyberattack left patients without care – Keep your records safe
Come with me. Imagine you rush to the emergency room, but after five hours, they tell you to find another hospital. Or you check in at your specialist’s office for a chronic condition, only to find they’ve lost your entire medical history. Both of these scenarios just happened.
Yesterday’s cyberattack on one of the largest health systems in the U.S., Ascension, was bad — really bad. Before you say, “Another data breach? So what, Kim?” know that having your records sold on the dark web is the least of your worries.
Code red
The hack on Ascension sent its 140 hospitals and 40 senior facilities into full-blown chaos. It took down patient record systems and medication prescribing systems, forcing doctors and nurses to rely on paper charts and handwritten records to keep things running.
One patient, Zackery Lopez, checked himself in at an Ascension-run hospital in Southfield, Michigan. He was suffering from internal bleeding and thinking his cancer had returned. Zackery waited a grueling seven hours before a nurse could help him. As he waited, he saw patients checking themselves out.
Keep your health records safe
When hospital systems get hacked, it’s a matter of life and death. And it’s happening more and more often. Keeping physical records sounds old-school, but if digital systems go down, it could save your life.
- Start with a list. Make a list of all your meds, including dosages and names, and keep both digital and physical copies. Store a physical copy in your purse or wallet if you’re currently in treatment or in case of emergency.
I also recommend compiling your full medical records and having a printed copy on hand. If you have an iPhone, you can sync them to your Health app:
Add your health records
- Open the Health app on your iPhone or iPad.
- If you’re on your iPhone, tap the Summary tab, then your profile picture in the upper-right corner. On iPad, tap Profile in the upper-left corner.
- Scroll down to Features > Health Records > Get Started.
- Search for your hospital or network, then tap it. FYI: It’ll ask you to add location services to find hospitals and health networks near you, but you don’t have to enable it to search.
- Under Available to Connect, choose Connect Account. Sign in to your health care provider’s website or app.
- Wait for your records to update. It might take a minute for your information to appear.
- Repeat these steps for each supported provider. Start by going to Features, then tap Add Account.
View your health records
$16K for a car battery? Only if you drive an EV …
Here’s a shocker you need to know: Replacing the battery in an electric vehicle can set you back up to $50,000. For those of you keeping track at home, that’s more than a brand-new Tesla Model 3. I’m not beating up Tesla. All EV carmakers hope you don’t figure this out.
DIY DNA: Are the results accurate?
Open/download audioAs many as 26 million people may have taken an at-home DNA test. If you’re thinking of taking one, you have to prepare yourself for the results. You may discover things about your family tree that you didn’t want to know. On the other hand, the results could yield a pleasant surprise. But how accurate are the results? Listen as Kim explores the world of at-home DNA testing with Lindsay Groves, senior product specialist at 23AndMe, and Robert Bennett, a forensic toxicologist and DNA scientist.
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Need help finding a doctor? These new tools make it easier
During this pandemic, it’s important to have a healthcare professional you trust to contact with medical questions. But the last place you want to visit right now unless absolutely necessary is the doctor’s office.
It never hurts to ask: Your internet plan is expensive. Call your ISP and ask to talk to a “retention specialist” — aka the folks who can cut you the best deal. Heads up, most promos are valid for a year, so you’ll have to negotiate again.
Make 30% more in revenue using this secret strategy
Open/download audioWe are all familiar with online display ads. They are those ads that jump at you when you are browsing a website. What you may not know, is how these ads end up on a particular page or why you are seeing them. Kim talks to specialist Heath Shaffer, owner of boutique AdOps firm NicheREV, for an insider scoop on everything that goes into the ads that you see, from advertisers who bid for the spot to the details that go into serving the ad on the website, and most of all, how to make money as a publisher.
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