<story><title>US prescription market hamstrung for 9 days (so far) by ransomware attack</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/us-prescription-market-hamstrung-for-9-days-so-far-by-ransomware-attack/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>londons_explore</author><text>Sometimes this kind of event is the trigger to design a more human-efficient process.&lt;p&gt;For example, if it goes on longer, the FDA might allow the majority of drugs to be sold directly on online marketplaces like Amazon without a prescription.   That would remove a huge amount of paperwork and doctors appointments for a massive number of people.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s be honest, the majority of prescription drugs don&amp;#x27;t have an abuse risk.</text></item><item><author>IG_Semmelweiss</author><text>Its not just presciptions. Its eligibility , claim submission, prescriptions, etc.&lt;p&gt;This is really affecting doctors and patients. Patients are not getting the drugs they need or the authorization for a critical procedure. Doctors&amp;#x27; cash flow is interrupted.&lt;p&gt;A lot of admin workers are backed up, and that itself is leading to problems too.&lt;p&gt;Why the backup? Its not just electronic data exchange being offline. Its that everything is now &amp;quot;going to paper&amp;quot; (submitted hard copy) which requires humans.  Those humans used to take care of the actual work. Now they are stuck shlepping paper from A to B instead.&lt;p&gt;I submitted two links explaining this in more detail yesterday&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=39561697&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=39561697&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>crotchfire</author><text>This is what Mexico does, and it works fine.&lt;p&gt;There are no prescriptions in Mexico.&lt;p&gt;Medications which are scheduled controlled substances (amphetamines, codiene, morphine, etc) are sold directly by hospitals.  There really aren&amp;#x27;t many of these, and hospitals already have to stock most of them for surgical use.&lt;p&gt;Everything else is cash over the counter.&lt;p&gt;And pseudoephedrine is illegal because of pressure from the US.</text></comment>
<story><title>US prescription market hamstrung for 9 days (so far) by ransomware attack</title><url>https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/03/us-prescription-market-hamstrung-for-9-days-so-far-by-ransomware-attack/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>londons_explore</author><text>Sometimes this kind of event is the trigger to design a more human-efficient process.&lt;p&gt;For example, if it goes on longer, the FDA might allow the majority of drugs to be sold directly on online marketplaces like Amazon without a prescription.   That would remove a huge amount of paperwork and doctors appointments for a massive number of people.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s be honest, the majority of prescription drugs don&amp;#x27;t have an abuse risk.</text></item><item><author>IG_Semmelweiss</author><text>Its not just presciptions. Its eligibility , claim submission, prescriptions, etc.&lt;p&gt;This is really affecting doctors and patients. Patients are not getting the drugs they need or the authorization for a critical procedure. Doctors&amp;#x27; cash flow is interrupted.&lt;p&gt;A lot of admin workers are backed up, and that itself is leading to problems too.&lt;p&gt;Why the backup? Its not just electronic data exchange being offline. Its that everything is now &amp;quot;going to paper&amp;quot; (submitted hard copy) which requires humans.  Those humans used to take care of the actual work. Now they are stuck shlepping paper from A to B instead.&lt;p&gt;I submitted two links explaining this in more detail yesterday&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=39561697&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=39561697&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>AnarchismIsCool</author><text>There might be some risk with idiots taking z packs for colds and creating more super bugs but there&amp;#x27;s definitely less stupid ways of doing this.&lt;p&gt;People who take critical stuff regularly usually have to ration drugs so they have a store in case of emergencies.  If you travel somewhere and you forget your life saving drugs you then have to spend a good chunk of your trip grovelling to the pharmacist and doctor (depending on the drug) to get an emergency refill if the drug is even available in that location. The whole system is bonkers.</text></comment>