Change Healthcare cyberattack: 'Nation-state' being blamed | Fox Business
By: Fox Business
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Federal and state funding is trying to beef up cybersecurity of local governments as threats rise.
American pharmacies are still grappling with difficulties providing prescriptions on Friday following a cyberattack against one of the nation's largest health care technology companies that is now being blamed on a "suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat actor."
Tricare, the military health care program, says on its website that "[m]ilitary clinics and hospitals will provide outpatient prescriptions through a manual procedure" until the ongoing cyberattack against Change Healthcare "is resolved."
Change Healthcare, a company that handles orders and patient payments throughout the U.S., first noticed the "cyber security issue" affecting its networks on Wednesday morning on the East Coast.
The company is a division of UnitedHealth Group, which wrote in an SEC filing that it has "identified a suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat actor" that has "gained access to some of the Change Healthcare information technology systems."
PHARMACIES NATIONWIDE FACE DELAYS AS HEALTH-CARE TECH COMPANY REPORTS CYBERATTACK
The filing did not identify the alleged country involved. FOX Business has reached out to the White House for comment.
On its website Friday morning, Change Healthcare said it is "experiencing a cyber security issue, and our experts are working to address the matter."
"Once we became aware of the outside threat, in the interest of protecting our partners and patients, we took immediate action to disconnect our systems to prevent further impact," the company continued. "At this time, we believe the issue is specific to Change Healthcare and all other systems across UnitedHealth Group are operational."
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UNH | UNITEDHEALTH GROUP INC. | 525.32 | -1.92 | -0.36% |
Pharmacies across the country put out notices Wednesday that the attack on Change Healthcare was disrupting their ability to process patients' orders.
"This is impacting all military pharmacies worldwide and some retail pharmacies nationally," Tricare said.
"Military pharmacies will give priority to urgent prescriptions followed by routine prescriptions. Each military hospital and clinic will continue to offer pharmacy operations based on their local manning and resources," it added. "Please be patient while pharmacies take longer than usual to safely fill prescription needs."
A spokesperson for pharmacy chain CVS told FOX Business on Wednesday that the company is aware of the outages but that there is "no indication that CVS Health's systems have been compromised."
"We're continuing to fill prescriptions, but in certain cases, we are not able to process insurance claims, which our business continuity plan is addressing to ensure patients continue to have access to their medications," the spokesperson added.
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A spokesperson for Walgreens said its pharmacy operations and the "vast majority" of its prescriptions were not impacted.
FOX Business' Timothy Nerozzi contributed to this report.
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Another cyberattack on US healthcare. And it's not only pharmacies that are being affected. There's a good chance your dentist can't file a claim with your insurance right now. And a mental healtchare provider I saw today said she can't update her clients' visit notes, due to the software company being breached.
Keep an eye on your credit score and bank accounts.
Yup, and this will be a major part of any war in the future.
It already is:
2014 - 2016, Russia launched a series of cyber attacks against Ukraine and the German parliament. China hacked 21.5 million employee records, stealing information from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (including mine).
I have Medicare A & B as primary and TriCare For Life as secondary. Since I live over 60 miles away from the closest military facility, I use my own private PCP in my home town and a local pharmacy that accepts TriCare so I am lucky in that respect.