Earlier this year, the FDA announced a $20 million plan to harness the power of Big Data to address the nation’s opioid crisis. Widely referred to as the nation’s biggest public health crisis, the opioid epidemic dates back to liberal opioid dispensing that began in the late 1990s.[1] Of the more than 700,000 overdose-related deaths in the United States during the period from 1999 through 2017, a staggering 68% involved opioids.[2] The total number of deaths includes those related to both prescription and illegally-acquired opioids, but the numbers shown below, supplied by the National Institute on Drug Abuse[3], indicate the latter is often a result of the former:

- Out of 100 patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain, as many as 29 end up misusing them.

- Out of those 29 people who misuse prescription opioids, as many as 6 will transition to heroin.

- Out of 100 people who use heroin, 80 first misused prescription opioids.

What’s come to light over the last two decades, however, is that many who were prescribed opioids could have managed their pain with non-opioid pain therapy (e.g., ibuprofen, acetaminophen, and physical therapy).[4] And for those at higher risk for opioid addiction, opioids are precisely the wrong therapy for pain management. But who’s at higher risk, and how can healthcare providers identify them?

That’s where Big Data analytics comes in. Why not use the vast amounts of information that exist on who’s been prescribed what, by whom, for what, and how that’s turned out, to prescribe more intelligently? Of course, the data has to first be properly recorded, structured, unified, and organized (i.e., data management), and the appropriate analytical tools need to be developed and applied (i.e., big data analytics). Here are some ways Big Data analytics is currently being brought to bear on the opioid epidemic:

PDMPs

“PDMP” stands for “prescription drug monitoring program,” which the CDC calls the “most promising state-level intervention” toward improving the practice of opioid prescribing.[5] PDMPs can provide health authorities timely information about prescribing and patient behaviors that contribute to the epidemic and facilitate a nimble and targeted response. As of April 2019, all 50 states[6] have adopted PDMP legislation (the lone holdout is Missouri), 37 of which are fully operational.

EHRs

The first electronic health record (“EHR,” which is also referred to as an electronic medical record) was developed in 1972[7]. The use of EHRs increased dramatically after the introduction of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996 (as a more efficient means of complying with HIPAA). By 2014, the call had been made for industry-wide adoption of EHRs. Along with their many other benefits, EHRs can effectively supplement traditional surveillance methods for monitoring trends in opioid prescribing, with minimal lag time, according to the CDC[8].

Health IT Integration

Making PDMP information available via EHR can make it easy for providers to quickly assess whether a patient should or should not be prescribed opioids, notes the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology,[9] which has been working toward PDMP and EHR integration. Specifically, the PDMP & Health IT Integration Initiative has been working toward establishing a standardized approach to delivering data stored in the PDMPs to EHRs, pharmacy systems, and health information exchanges.

The FDA’s Database Project

The FDA’s project referred to here will attempt to take the aforementioned efforts even further by using Big Data to identify not just individuals, but communities, at risk with regard to opioid addiction.

Harnessing Social Media

The next level of addiction prediction may come from mining social media. New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT)[10] has been developing a real-time data analytics tool to monitor social platforms such as Twitter and Reddit to help professionals identify and treat drug abuse. The tool is expected to use, among other things, machine learning (also known as artificial intelligence, or AI), to determine what online behavior correlates with drug abuse.

[1]https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/johnson-and-johnson-is-responsible-for-fueling-oklahomas-opioid-crisis-judge-rules-in-landmark-case/2019/08/26/ed7bc6dc-c7fe-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/index.html

[3] https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis

[4] https://www.asahq.org/whensecondscount/pain-management/non-opioid-treatment/,.

[5] https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/pdmp/states.html

[6] https://statetechmagazine.com/article/2017/06/states-step-it-efforts-battle-against-opioid-epidemic

[7]https://elearning.scranton.edu/resource/health-human-services/emr_the-progress-to-100-percent-electronic-medical-records

[8] https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6802a1.htm?s_cid=mm6802a1_w

[9]https://www.healthit.gov/topic/health-it-health-care-settings/connecting-impact-linking-potential-prescription-drug-0

[10] https://healthitanalytics.com/news/real-time-data-analytics-tool-helps-track-treat-drug-abuse

"Don’t fall for claims about remedies that will immunize or cure you of the disease,” warns the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Instead, practice prevention. Here is exactly what the CDC advises you to do in that regard: [1]

Avoid close contact

• Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
• Put distance between yourself and other people if COVID-19 is spreading in your community. This is especially important for older adults, cancer survivors, and people with other serious chronic conditions.
• Avoid crowded locations like malls, theaters, and sports venues.

Keep your hands clean

• Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds especially after you have been in a public place, or after blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing.
• If soap and water are not readily available, use a hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Cover all surfaces of your hands and rub them together until they feel dry.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.

Avoid touching high-touch surfaces in public places—elevator buttons, door handles, handrails, handshaking with people, etc. Use a tissue or your sleeve to cover your hand or finger if you must touch something

We know that all of you are also preoccupied with this pandemic. As you work through this situation, please do not hesitate to contact us at covidresponse@exelatech.com and let us know if we can assist you in any way.

[1]https://blogs.cdc.gov/cancer/2020/03/16/best-remedy-for-covid-19-is-prevention/?deliveryName=USCDC_9_13-DM22702

The ability to gather and compile massive amounts of business-relevant data has been a game-changer for enterprises of all sizes, across all industries. By now, most business leaders realize that this information – referred to as ‘big data’ can help them refine operations, improve messaging for marketing and sales, drive increased ROI on many business actions, and shore up employee and customer retention as just a few examples.

Just making this connection that big data provides actionable strategies for operational improvement is not enough.  There are other questions enterprises must answer as well. Where are we collecting all this information from? How do we convert something immense and evolving into something we can use to drive results?

Answering these questions will help transform your processes to be powered by big data, centered around digital insights in a strategic and purposeful manner.  Below, we’ll detail further the keys to successfully leveraging big data to help power lasting, effective digital transformation.

Why Big Data is Key to Digital Transformation

Digital transformation is often powered by a focus on the end customer, member, or patient. Today, consumers are empowered, and actively shop around for businesses that can offer them what they need in a best-class manner – attractive prices and customer services, tailored offers, custom communication strategies all combine to create the type of customer experience that drives effective retention today. Information is the key that unlocks actionable insights about customer preferences for offerings and communications, and it helps power a digitally-oriented business as a whole.

Effectively mining big data for actionable insights provides enterprises the ability to satisfy client requirements. When data powers decision-making in this way: health insurance providers can tailor communications around preferred channels and delivery times, improving response rates; banks can target only homeowners with offers for new mortgage rates and products, instead of blanketing an entire mailing list; and, retailers can analyze historical data about purchasing habits, helping them shape their inventory levels more accurately; to name just a few examples.

According to a Gartner report on digital transformation, 41% of executive respondents said their company is already facing substantial industry transformation due to these trends. It’s time for every enterprise to take the necessary steps to stay ahead of the curve. To paraphrase a famous futurist, once a new technology rolls over – you can either be the pavement, or the steamroller.

With an understanding of the ways in-which big data is crucial to an effective, lasting digital transformation for a business – what are some actionable steps stakeholders can take to initiate such an undertaking?

Identify Objectives

Don’t use the experience of another enterprise to formulate your own digital transformation strategy – look at your own, unique strategic goals for both the short and long term, and formulate your plans around those.

To this end, avoid unspecific goals like ‘improve bottom line finances’. What is more effective is honing in on your unique operational pain points or areas of improvement. Some more effective examples could include:

• Reducing costs or cycle times related to customer-facing processes such as bill collection
• Retaining more customers by improving communication, offer, and outreach strategies
• Collecting and listening to customer pain points to find gaps in the market that can be effectively leveraged
• Improving internal workflows to improve employee retention and productivity
• Improving the customer experience by examining groups of lost customers for commonalities in terms of accounts lost

Hone in on the Most Relevant Data

When you begin your digital transformation, you’ll likely find that there are both internal and external sources of relevant data. You’ll need to define exactly what is most useful to your goals. If you’re looking for insights into your customers and employees, CRM and ERP tools offer a rich source of data to mine for these areas. If you’re more interested in gaining wider insights into your market and how to gain a greater share of it, analyzing consumer behavior and sentiment across social media or ecommerce websites can provide a wealth of insights if you have the platforms and processes in place to analyze the data.

Putting it All Together in an Actionable Way

A degree in advanced analytics is not required to start many of the processes we’ve outlined – but you can’t do it all alone. To make data actionable, you need to be able to visualize it, manipulate it, and to look at various data sets from a central platform that provides simple, digestible report to share information with your team. There are tools and platforms available today that will allow you integrate with current technology and processes, and will help provide you with the insights necessary to improve them.

As 2018 swiftly approaches, it is crucial that enterprises understand how big data can help power effective, sustainable digital transformation. Those that recognize this trend, and take the necessary steps to help their enterprise leverage big data will stay competitive into the future. The ones that fail to capitalize on these new opportunities very well may not. The time has come for every enterprise to incorporate big data into business operations to power effective digital transformation. For more information, contact us today!

Our current body of medical knowledge began with notations made by those tasked with patient care going as far back as 3,000 B.C. It wasn’t until the 1920s, however, that healthcare professionals widely came to understand the benefits of carefully documented patient health records. Initially, patient record-keeping took the form of the “Problem Oriented Medical Record” (POMR), which as the name suggests, was organized around solving medical problems, as opposed to preventing illness and maintaining optimal health.

The birth of electronic medical records

Initially all patient information was recorded on paper (or parchment, in ancient times). However, the burgeoning computer age in the mid-1960s led to the birth of the first “Electronic Medical Records” (EMRs), which were essentially the equivalent of patient “charts,” except in electronic form. EMRs were an improvement over paper records. However, technology was significantly more expensive at this time, and the utility of EMRs was limited by their inherent lack of interoperability .Interoperability, in the context of health information, refers to the seamless and secure exchange of electronic health information between authorized users of such information. In other words, interoperability is as much about sharing, as it is about protecting the privacy of, patient health data, for the benefits of both patient and provider.

The birth of HIPAA

Nevertheless, legislation introduced that would have required uniform adoption of EMRs sputtered to a dead end in Congress. On the other hand, legislation addressing privacy of patient data gained enough traction to lead to the passage of HIPAA: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

When HIPAA was introduced, its primary purpose was ensuring employees would continue to receive health insurance coverage when they were between jobs (hence, “portability”). Another purpose, however, was improving efficiency in the healthcare industry (hence, “accountability”). In furtherance thereof, HIPAA took aim at the vast amounts of paperwork generated in the course of the claims process, by, among other things, requiring providers and payers to adopt standardized treatment and diagnosis codes. As a result, the adoption of HIPAA was pivotal in the move toward adopting electronic patient records.

The birth of HITECH

As much as EMRs made good sense to providers post-HIPAA, the cost of transitioning from paper was proving prohibitively expensive. Congress responded in 2009 by passing the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), which introduced incentives for providers to “go electronic.”

The birth of Electronic Health Records

Over time, but particularly in the past two to three years, HITECH has shifted the EMR paradigm entirely. The process of optimizing patient data came to focus in content as much as form. POMRs gave way to records aimed at presenting a full picture of a patient’s total health: the Electronic Health Record (EHR). EHRs are, by law, the property of the patient, and only the patient can grant power to a provider to allow access by third parties. For more information on what should generally be contained in an EHR, please visitTell Us Where It Hurts: How Tech Can Heal Healthcare.

Still so far to go

Electronic health records hold significant benefits over their predecessor systems for health information record-keeping. They hold enormous promise for addressing healthcare’s inefficiencies by turning an overabundance of underutilized data into assets that work synergistically to benefit providers, payers, and patients. However, the promise remains unfulfilled at present, in large part due to interoperability. We’ll be exploring the current state of interoperability in an upcoming post on the Exela Blog. Can’t wait? Check out the full story in our Q4 Edition of PluggedIN: Tell Us Where It Hurts: How Tech Can Heal Healthcare.

Get PluggedIN Now

Sources:

https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/health-sciences/blog/health-information-management-history/

https://www.healthit.gov/buzz-blog/electronic-health-and-medical-records/emr-vs-ehr-difference

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2233232/

https://elearning.scranton.edu/resource/health-human-services/emr_the-progress-to-100-percent-electronic-medical-records

https://www.hipaajournal.com/what-is-the-hitech-act/

https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/full/10.1377/hlthaff.2016.1651

From the outside, the average billing cycle for a medical appointment looks pretty simple: Go to the doctor, pay for the visit (with your own money or insurance), repeat as necessary.

For healthcare providers, though, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is more like this:

• Identify the patient
• Pre-register the patient
• Patient arrives, is treated
• Patient pays, or, in most cases, insurance claim is filed
• Claim is processed
• Insurance company may follow up to dispute claim, or deny coverage
• Office follows up with patient to receive disputed payment
• Payment may go into debt collection
• Account closed.

From a two-step process to a nine-step process, in the blink of an eye. The thing is, providers only really care about one thing: getting paid. And that’s where business process outsourcing can come in. Providers receive payments and explanations of benefits in a variety of forms, forms that vary from payer to payer. Aetna may have one form, while Medicaid and Medicare may have others. The manual matching of these forms, and syncing them to a specific provider’s system can take weeks, delaying payment along the way. According to industry data, 2.5 billion commercial payer healthcare remittances are handled manually every year.

It’s that number — 2.5 billion — that opens the door for business process outsourcing. BPO companies can match the claims, payments, and explanations of benefits instantly, whether they’re paper or electronic. After that, they convert the EOBs to a standardized form, eliminating any missing features. The electronic files are then rerouted to the provider, providing a real-time boost in revenue, and eliminating costly labor expenses associated with payment processing. According to the Medical Group Management Association, the cost of billing operations is 18 to 20 percent of a provider’s overhead, and each claim clips $5 to $7 from them.

Then take into account the interest that could be earned each day with speedier billing:

The federal government is incentivizing providers to switch to electronic records and billing; still many companies don’t think it’s worth it. But consider this: Providers can take weeks to process claims and remittances. A BPO company takes 24 hours. The difference is tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or millions of dollars each year in lost revenue. It’s not worth it to stay stuck in the paper age.

Exela Technologies is committed to the planet, all those who dwell here, and all those who will in the future.”

With 22,000 employees in 23 countries, Exela has the wingspan with which to support communities across the globe. Working tirelessly to leverage that wingspan is the Marketing Team's Kathryn "Katie" Beezley. Based in Atlanta, Georgia (and in constant contact with Exela leadership around the world), Katie is the conduit through which Exela's philanthropic efforts flow.

To learn more about Exela's philanthropy program, #ExelaGivesBack, and how Katie positions Exela to "be the change" the company wants to see in the world, we sat down with Katie for a chat. Here's the takeaway:

Exela's philanthropic mission

"As a global corporate citizen," Katie explains, "Exela takes its responsibility seriously to advance causes that make the world a better place." Accordingly, Katie seeks out and identifies causes and related philanthropic initiatives that are meaningful to Exela as a company or to individuals within the company.

To keep her finger on the pulse of what's meaningful, Katie cultivates relationships with Exela employees all over the world and does her best to "really listen" to what they're saying. She then brings her ideas to our leadership team, which determines which organizations to support and how best to do so.

"In each case, we seek to generate interest, engagement, and monetary donations, as well as engaging our employees in the act of "giving back. Whenever possible, we pledge to match all monetary donations by employees, up to a set level."

How Exela leadership decides which organizations to support

We choose organizations that align with our values, which include:

• Respect for the Individual
• Ethics
• Collaboration
• Passion
• Innovation
• Empowerment

How #ExelaGivesBack came to be

Exela and its predecessor companies had always participated in local philanthropic initiatives— from road races and fun runs to benefit local causes to inviting our employees to wear pink during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. When Exela went public in 2017, we saw an amazing opportunity to use our influence and considerable pool of employees to make a difference on a more global level.

How #ExelaGivesBack selects causes to support

"I research nonprofit organizations and charitable events near our largest offices so that we can have as much participation as possible for the event," says Katie. "After meeting with the organizations and learning what they do, we determine which will fit with our core values and mission as a company.

#GetToKnow Katie

Corporate philanthropy was a natural fit for Katie, who has been with Exela (via its predecessor company, SourceHOV) since 2013. "Since I had already been coordinating special events, getting involved in planning philanthropic events and initiatives seemed a natural fit," Katie explains.

What #ExelaGivesBack gives back to Katie

When asked for some of the highlights of her job, Katie reminded us of just how inspiring the Bare Hands event proved to be. "I was lucky enough to participate in person in the Bare Hands event for Earth Day this year in Atlanta. Seeing the community come together to create something beautiful, useful and sustainable out of something that had been overlooked and neglected for years was really incredible," she tells us. "Everyone brought their children and grandchildren to participate which was great to see because we were having an impact on future generations and not just our own."

Figuring out what to believe and what not to believe about COVID-19 can be challenging in light of the deluge of information coming at us from all sources. In Tuesday’s blog, 8 Ways to Avoid COVID-19 Fake News, we offer best practices for spotting news that may be fake and doing some at-home sleuthing to confirm whether or not it is. However, it’s not just news that can mislead us. Sometimes, it’s what we think we already know.

Fortunately, the World Health Organization has not only been keeping its finger on the pulse of the misconceptions people hold about the virus, but actually maintaining a running list of those misconceptions on its Mythbusters page. Here is a summary of the COVID-19 myths that WHO wishes people would stop believing:

Myth: 5G mobile networks spread the virus

COVID-19 is spread through respiratory droplets, WHO explains. “Viruses cannot travel on radio waves/mobile networks.” In fact, COVID-19 is spreading through many countries that don’t have 5G.

Myth: Exposing yourself to heat prevents the spread of the virus

This myth has been repeated in many different forms, including:

• COVID-19 can’t spread in countries that are hot and humid
• COVID-19 won’t spread once summer comes (no one can possibly know that yet)
• The hot air from a blow-dryer will kill the virus on surfaces
• The hot air from a hand-dryer will kill the virus on your hands
• Taking a hot bath can prevent you from coming down with the illness caused by the virus.

None of this is true, nor is it true that cold weather kills the virus. You can catch COVID-19, no matter what the weather, and countries with hot weather have reported cases of COVID-19. The best way to protect yourself from getting sick is to wash your hands thoroughly and avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.

Myth: UV light can prevent the spread of the virus

This is a variation on the hot air myth and equally false. UV lamps should not be used to sterilize the skin, and trying to do so can cause irritation, WHO states.

Myth: Drinking alcoholic beverages can protect you from the virus

This is simply not true. Nor should any other form of alcohol be taken internally as “protection” from the virus. Other things you might think of doing to yourself to protect yourself from the virus that will not work:

• Rinsing your nose with saline
• Eating garlic
• Getting a pneumonia vaccine
• Taking antibiotics
• Taking anti-malaria drugs (as of this date, these have not been proven to prevent COVID-19).

Myth: You can catch the novel coronavirus through a mosquito bite To date, there is no evidence to suggest COVID-19 can be transmitted by mosquitoes.

Myth: You can tell if you have COVID-19 by trying to hold your breath for 10 seconds “Being able to hold your breath for 10 seconds or more without coughing or feeling discomfort DOES NOT mean you are free from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) or any other lung disease,” WHO writes. The only reliable way to determine if you have the virus producing COVID-19 is vialab oratory test.

Myth: If you catch the virus, you will have it for life Most people who catch COVID-19 recover completely. What scientists are currently trying to determine is whether and to what extent having recovered from COVID-19 bestows immunity to re-infection.1<

Myth: Only older people and sick people are affected by COVID-19

Anyone can catch COVID-19, and anyone can become severely ill as a result. Certain pre-existing medical conditions can make a person more vulnerable to becoming severely ill. These include the following conditions that can affect people of any age:

• Asthma
• Diabetes
• Heart disease

As you work through these challenging times, we hope you’ll find this glossary of COVID-19 terms helpful, as well as our special edition of PluggedIN, COVID-19: A Tipping Point For Remote Work. If there is any way you think we can assist you, please do not hesitate to contact us at covidresponse@exelatech.com.

1. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-immunity-to-covid-19-really-means/

Interoperability in healthcare refers to the seamless and secure exchange of electronic health information between authorized users of such information. In other words, it is as much about sharing, as it is about protecting the privacy of patient health data. Healthcare interoperability is complicated by the sheer number of players that might be involved in any given health-related transaction (e.g., providers, payers, consumers), all of whom may be utilizing disparate and potentially inconsistent systems and structures of data. Accordingly, to facilitate the seamless transfer, exchange, and protection of personal health information, it must occur at four distinct “levels” that have been defined by the Health Information and Management Systems Society:

- Foundational – which addresses inter-connectivity requirements within systems themselves to communicate data between/among one another.

- Structural – which defines format, syntax, and organization of data necessary for sharing and exchange.

- Semantic – which defines underlying models for data, including standardized codes such as those established by HIPAA, enabling shared understanding between users of disparate systems.

- “New” Organizational – which is akin to “information governance” (framing the overarching policy for handling all information received or generated by an organization).

In late 2015, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released what it refers to as a roadmap for enabling individuals and organizations to securely share health information with any provider—with the goal of supporting “a wide range of health and wellness functions, which will ultimately benefit patients and their families.” In so doing, ONC essentially called on all health IT stakeholders to develop policies and technical approaches to help achieve the ability to share information seamlessly. As of March 2019, the federal government has invested $36 billion in promoting the digitization of health information. In 2017 alone, hospitals spent nearly $25 billion globally on electronic health records, and such spending is projected to increase to $33 billion by 2023.

Yet according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of office-based physicians using a certified EHR system is not even 80 percent. And despite all the spending, a 2018 survey of nearly 600 primary care physicians (PCPs) conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Stanford Medicine indicates providers have yet to see significant value in their investments of money, time, and effort in adopting and using EHRs.

Here are the key findings from that poll:

Healthcare’s most significant inefficiencies all have in common the failure to meaningfully leverage patient health information. The effect is increased cost yet eroded quality of care. This failure directly impacts patient care and ultimately public health. However, it also indirectly affects public health, by, among other things, directly obstructing an efficient claims process. In our next post, we’ll be exploring precisely how one small error in coding can have a big impact on the claims process. Can’t wait? Check out the full story in our Q4 Edition of PluggedIN: Tell Us Where It Hurts: How Tech Can Heal Healthcare.

Get PluggedIN Now

Sources:

https://www.hipaajournal.com/onc-10-year-interoperability-roadmap-8136/

https://khn.org/news/death-by-a-thousand-clicks/

https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/ehr-investments-slowing-down-hospitals-cite-high-costs-study-finds

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/electronic-medical-records.htm

https://med.stanford.edu/content/dam/sm/ehr/documents/EHR-Poll-Presentation.pdf

Wherever there is fear, there are also scams. The new coronavirus, officially called COVID-19, is no different. --- World Health Organization

It’s a sad fact of life that cyber scammers are always hard at work thinking of new ways to separate you from your money or your identity. As our inboxes fill up with alerts that namecheck “COVID-19” and “Coronavirus,” it can be difficult to know what to believe. What makes it even more challenging is that scammers find ways to make the addresses from which they’re sending scam-mail seem almost indistinguishable from legit-mail. Fortunately, Exela is ahead of the cybersecurity curve (you can read all about the security standards Exela meets here), and we wanted to take a moment to give you some guidelines about what you should be on the lookout for in terms of the great “scamdemic.”

Communications from the World Health Organization (WHO)

We’re not saying that WHO will never be in touch with you. We’re just saying that a lot of scammers are pretending to be WHO officials in email, as well as on text and over phone calls. One goal of the scammer might be to get you to give up information about yourself, your bank accounts, your usernames and your passwords. Another might be to get you to click on a malicious link or attachment. So when you see a communication that might be from WHO, don’t even bother opening it unless it the sender’s email ends with “who.int.”

If you do open it, do not click on anything, and don’t provide any information. WHO has specifically warned, “there is no need for someone to request your personal information such as username and password to access public information.” If you’re in doubt, you should contact WHO directly.

If your workforce has suddenly become a remote workforce, you may also be concerned about your paper mail. For example, who will be at the office to receive it and route it to its intended recipient? If it is unattended, is it secure? Here is how Exela’s Digital Mailroom can put your mind at ease.

Fake face mask offers

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has advised that scammers are out there trying to get you to purchase poor quality or counterfeit protective facial masks. There’s really only one way to know that an offer to sell you a face mask is legit, and that’s if you know who it is who is offering to sell it to you.

But about face masks, the CDC does not recommend that people who aren’t sick wear masks to protect themselves from coronavirus (or any respiratory illness). The exceptions are if you’re a healthcare professional caring for people with the virus or if a healthcare professional whom you trust advises you to do so.

Miracle cure offers

The BBB has also advised consumers to watch out for products claiming to provide a “miracle cure” for the novel coronavirus. “Don’t fall for claims about remedies that will immunize or cure you of the disease,” the CDC states on its website, which also states the best known cure for COVID-19 is prevention. We have the CDC’s advice on prevention here, so please have a look.

The fake real-time map app

In a recent Exela Blog post, we talked about some exciting innovation relating to the coronavirus and COVID-19. The technology mentioned there is legit. What is not legit is the app, coronavirusapp[.]site, which claims to provide access to a real-time virus-tracker map with important related information and statistics. Whether it does so or not is irrelevant because what it does provide access to is ransomware. You can learn about ransomware and why it can be devastating to your business here.

As reported by ARS Technica, this ransomware will deny you access to your phone by forcing a password change in exchange for “ransom” of about $100 in bitcoins. Another word for this type of ransomware is “screen-lock attack.”¹ Please don’t download anything, including this particular app, unless you are certain it comes from a legitimate source.

We know that all of you are also preoccupied with this pandemic. As you work through this situation, please do not hesitate to contact us at covidresponse@exelatech.com and let us know if we can assist you in any way.

1. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/03/the-internet-is-drowning-in-covid-19-related-malware-and-phishing-scams/