It’s no secret that the healthcare industry is a target for hackers, with hundreds of companies experiencing cybersecurity incidents each year.

Before the Change Healthcare cyberattack and the CrowdStrike outage in 2024, there were major attacks at Anthem, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, and UCLA Health Systems about 10 years prior that had set the industry ablaze. The trend was a wake-up call for providers who were increasingly using electronic health records but perhaps didn’t incorporate enough protections to keep patient data safe online.

Cyberattacks aren’t just invasive for patients—they’re also very costly. IBM reported last year, in fact, that healthcare data breaches cost an average of $9.8 million per incident.

These attacks were a lesson for the entire industry in 2015, and experts spoke with Healthcare Brew about how the approach to cybersecurity shifted after.

“The only thing that really moves the needle in cybersecurity is a high-profile attack,” Mark Stockley, a cybersecurity expert, said.

See the latest installment in our Quarter Century Project.—CM

Centene announced its first quarterly loss in 13 years on Friday.

Investors lost an adjusted 16 cents a share in Q2, a huge fall from last quarter’s adjusted gain of $2.90 per share. The company also gave a new projection for earnings per share in 2025: $1.75. The Wall Street Journal reported this is far less than the previously projected $7.25+.

Centene, which focuses on government subsidized plans, pulled its revenue guidance on July 1 following a report from actuarial firm Wakely suggesting fewer people would get marketplace coverage than expected, and those who did would need more expensive care.

Centene CEO Sarah London said the company is adjusting 2026 pricing for its marketplace plans, which have nearly 5.9 million members as of the end of Q2.

“We continue to believe that we will be able to reprice the 2026 portfolio to account for a substantial majority of our marketplace membership, and our goal is to reprice 100% of the book,” London said.

Here’s the latest.—CC

Occasionally, we schedule our rounds with Healthcare Brew readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.

We’re revamping our Making Rounds column, where we feature experts in the healthcare industry and highlight what they do, the challenges and misconceptions they face, and the parts of their jobs that bring them the most joy.

We spoke with Robert Andrews, CEO of the Health Transformation Alliance (HTA), a group of healthcare organizations working to provide better healthcare experiences for employees and their families. Before starting HTA, Andrews served as a member of the New Jersey House of Representatives for almost 25 years.

“Put simply, we’re all working together to do one thing: fix our broken healthcare system,” he told us about the company’s goals.

Learn more about HTA and its CEO here.—NO