Innovators Connection

At the 2023 AHA Rural Health Care Leadership Conference, industry leaders showcased their new knowledge, fresh ideas and creative solutions during live podcast recordings. Tune in to the podcast replays after the event to hear AHA partners discuss innovation and top-of-mind issues for AHA Member hospitals and health systems.

Monday, February 20, 2023
12:50-1:05 p.m. | Replay

Defense and Preparation Tactics for Rural Hospitals Against Cyberattacks

Michael Hamilton, CISO, Critical Insight
Jake Milstein, Chief Marketing Officer, Critical Insight
John Riggi, National Advisor for Cybersecurity and Risk, American Hospital Assn.

Presented by: Critical Insight

Since rural hospitals are increasingly the targets of cyber criminals, they need to be ready for cyberattacks. There are specific steps to take to prepare for a cyberattack, including full-scale exercises. If a criminal enters the hospital network, there are ways to limit the impact of the attack; once a hospital begins responding to the attack, there are important actions that must happen to keep patients safe. In this podcast episode, listeners will learn how hospital executives, IT departments, staff, and hospital boards can align before a cyberattack, so that if an attack occurs, everyone is prepared.

5:25-5:40 p.m. | Replay

Strategies for Using Cybersecurity to Protect Patient Safety at Rural Hospitals

Chris Logan, SVP, Chief Security, Censinet
John Riggi, National Advisor for Cybersecurity and Risk, American Hospital Assn.

Presented by: Censinet

Because ransomware now is a direct threat to care delivery and hospital operations, cyberattacks are no longer “just an I.T. issue”; they are a patient-safety issue. As such, leading hospitals and health care systems now manage cyber risk as enterprise risk. Moreover, many are expanding accountability for managing cyber risk from the IT department all the way up to the board. In this podcast episode, listeners will learn how to create a culture of cybersecurity in their organization and facilitate board-level risk visibility and accountability to ultimately protect patient safety.

5:50-6:05 p.m. | Replay

Using Analytics to Manage Revenue Workflows

Patrick Warren, AVP, Sales, Inovalon
Lori Zindl, VP, Business Development, Inovalon
Rachel Dallmann, Director of Revenue Cycle, Phelps Memorial Health Center

Presented by: Inovalon

In this podcast episode, listeners will learn a new way of viewing RCM analytics that will help pinpoint the accuracy of patient information and the effectiveness of the systems being used at their hospital or health care system. A shift in focus can help prevent denials and reduce the labor spent on fixing rejected claims, ultimately boosting the quality and performance of claims processing and empowering leaders to investigate the root causes of revenue workflow challenges.

6:15-6:30 p.m. | Replay

Cybersecurity Best Practices to Protect Hospital Information Assets

George Mills, Chief Growth Officer, GM Sectec
John Riggi, National Advisor for Cybersecurity and Risk, American Hospital Assn.

Presented by: GM Sectec

Ensuring patient health and services, securing Legal Safe Harbor from a data breach, and protecting against cyberattacks and ransomware are all reliant on also ensuring the protection of medical records, electronic patient health care information, and operational and financial data. In this podcast episode, listeners will learn how a persistent data-centric security approach and program can help to reduce the cyber risks that threaten patient safety and care delivery, as well as how to decrease the threat of cyber-attacks, including ransomware.