Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health Industry Consolidation In The Spotlight In Change Healthcare Hack
Stat: Change Healthcare Cyberattack Shows Risk Of Industry Consolidation
Experts told STAT it’s a glaring example of the risk of consolidation in health care. Change, which is owned by UnitedHealth Group, is one of the nation’s largest insurance claim processing hubs. A cyberattack, first announced Wednesday, took the entire company’s network down. Hospitals, doctors’ offices, and pharmacies have since resorted to sending claims via fax, validating patients’ insurance over the phone, and watching helplessly as unpaid bills pile up, multiple hospital employees told STAT. In an update Monday, UnitedHealth said it was still working to restore its impacted systems. (Trang, Bannow and Herman, 2/27)
Fast Company: Change Healthcare Cyberattack Update: A Bigger Deal Than You Think
Pharmacies across the United States are still grappling with substantial disruptions following a cyberattack on UnitedHealth’s technology unit, Change Healthcare, as reported by multiple pharmacy chains through official statements and on various social media platforms. The attack led to a nationwide outage of a network designed to communicate data between healthcare providers and insurance companies. The company did not provide a timeline for when services would be restored. Fast Company reached out to Change Healthcare for additional information and will update this post if we hear back. (Hamilton, 2/26)
The Register: ALPHV/BlackCat Responsible For Change Healthcare Cyberattack
The ALPHV/BlackCat ransomware gang is reportedly responsible for the massive Change Healthcare cyberattack that has disrupted pharmacies across the US since last week. According to Reuters, citing "two people familiar with the matters," the notorious ransomware-as-a-service operation was behind the UnitedHealth owned business' attack. The Register has not independently confirmed that ALPHV was involved in the intrusion. (Lyons, 2/26)
Kiplinger: Pharmacy Disruptions Ongoing After UnitedHealth Cyberattack
The breach also affected military clinics and hospital worldwide, according to a February 22 news release by Tricare, the government's healthcare program for the U.S. military. “Military clinics and hospitals will provide outpatient prescriptions through a manual procedure until this issue is resolved,” said Tricare, which asked for patience while pharmacies take longer than usual to safely fill prescriptions. (Solitro, 2/26)
