hospital cyberattack

Ascension, which runs hospitals and clinics in North Florida, is investigating whether patient data was affected. Meantime, electronic health records are down and "nonemergent" procedures are postponed.

Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association, said the group has over 100 hospitals that directly contract with Change Healthcare, the target of the cyberattack.

Federal officials say they are working to develop rules to help health care facilities protect themselves against threats. But they say more money is needed from Congress to help hospitals protect themselves.

The hospital hasn’t been specific about the type of security issue that brought its computer network offline two weeks ago, but experts say the evidence points to a ransomware attack.

A week after the IT breach, the health system said more emergency patients are being accepted while “significant progress" has been made to bring affected computer systems back online.

A cyberattack that paralyzed the hospital chain MedStar this week is serving as a fresh reminder of vulnerabilities that exist in systems that protect…