CDC on Thursday announced the launch of the Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements initiative, a program aimed at providing hospitals with guidelines for managing medical emergencies resulting from sepsis, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Connecticut, Georgia, and Washington.

• Connecticut: Cigna announced it will be eliminating prior authorization requirements for over 600 procedures on its commercial plans, representing 25% of the company's prior authorization requirements for 16.5 million commercial enrollees. According to Cigna, fewer than 4% of procedures are currently subject to prior authorization for commercial policyholders. "We've listened attentively to our clinician partners and are deliberately making these changes as a result," said David Brailer, Cigna's chief health officer. (Tepper, Modern Healthcare, 8/24)
• Georgia: CDC on Thursday announced the launch of the Hospital Sepsis Program Core Elements initiative, a program aimed at providing hospitals with guidelines for managing medical emergencies resulting from sepsis. The program will include seven core elements: leadership, accountability, multi-professional expertise, action, tracking, reporting, and education. CDC Director Mandy Cohen said "programs dedicated to the care of patients with sepsis have been successful in saving more lives, reducing the amount of time patients need to stay in the hospital, and cutting healthcare costs." (AHA News, 8/24; Frieden, MedPage Today, 8/24; Baumgaertner, New York Times, 8/24; Deveraux, Modern Healthcare, 8/24; Musa, CNN, 8/24)
• Washington: The first half of 2023 has seen fewer cybersecurity breaches than 2022, but the size of those breaches have been larger, according to a new report from Critical Insights. Between January and June, 308 healthcare data breaches were reported to the federal government, representing a 15% decline from the latter half of 2022. However, the number of individuals affected by the breaches in 2023 so far has jumped to 40 million, up from 31 million in the second half of 2022. "Our report found that hackers are increasingly targeting the weakest links and vulnerable points in the supply chain, specifically business associates or third-party companies, that offer services to healthcare organizations emphasizing the importance of effective incident response planning and proactive defense strategies," said John Delano, healthcare cybersecurity strategist at Critical Insight and VP at Christus Health. (Muoio, Fierce Healthcare, 8/24)