A recent cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a UnitedHealth Group company, caused massive prescription delays affecting tens of thousands of pharmacies across the United States, according to Whio.
The Tennessee-based technology company encountered network troubles beginning on Wednesday, resulting in a prolonged outage that lasted into Thursday. UnitedHealth quickly responded to the cyber security issue, disconnecting systems to reduce the impact.
UnitedHealth said in a regulatory filing on Thursday that the incident could have been organized by hackers from a foreign country.
The organization discovered a potential nation-state threat actor who gained access to several of Change Healthcare’s information technology systems. UnitedHealth acted quickly to isolate the compromised systems, emphasizing the safety of partners and patients.
While the hack was expressly aimed at Change Healthcare, it had far-reaching consequences for pharmacies countrywide. Insurance claims processing was affected, causing prescription delays for patients. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires corporations to report cyberattacks, and UnitedHealth cooperated.
Pharmacies, including Walgreens and CVS, have acknowledged the impact on prescription services. Walgreens stated that there were no substantial concerns but that a “small percentage” of prescriptions may be affected.
