A cyberattack on a division of the US health insurance company UnitedHealth is reportedly hampering pharmacies across the United States from filling patients’ prescriptions.
In a regulatory filing Thursday, the company said cyber-crooks infiltrated specific systems of its Change Healthcare unit, which processes prescriptions for insurance at hundreds of US pharmacies. The hack was discovered on Wednesday, and according to a separate statement, UnitedHealth expected disruption to continue through Thursday at least.
Many pharmacies struggled to fill prescriptions and get paid by insurance companies. Meanwhile, a social media post from the Naval Hospital in Camp Pendleton, California, stated that the facility was ‘unable to process any Prescription Claims’ and could assist only with prescriptions from hospital providers for urgent or emergency cases.
Meanwhile, another hospital – Evans Army Community Hospital in Colorado – reported that the outage was causing delays in ‘processing pharmacy orders,’ including refills. A platform called GoodRX, which helps users find prescription discounts, noted that some of its systems were also offline.
Moffet Drug, an independent pharmacy in Norton, Kansas, also reported services interrupted.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, UnitedHealth mentioned the possibility that the attack might have been carried out by a group of hackers working for or operating under the direction of a foreign government. The company says it immediately took the affected systems offline after discovering them, determined law enforcement, and took steps to remediate to protect partners and patients.
The nature of the attack is still unknown, but since then, UnitedHealth has required new methods from its subscribers. At the same time, the American Hospital Association warned its medical facilities to detach themselves from UnitedHealth’s network until further notice.
Change Healthcare said it contained the attack within its network and had not spread into other systems belonging to UnitedHealth Group. The company stated it was taking steps to combat the attack and expected the disruption to continue throughout the day. The company said that information will continue to be updated as facts develop.
Source: David Goldman and Caroll Alvarado, CNN February 23, 2024
