Change Healthcare Cyberattack: U.S. Health Technology major Change Healthcare has confirmed a cyber attack on its systems. In a brief statement Wednesday, the company said it was experiencing “a network disruption related to a cybersecurity issue.”
“As soon as we became aware of the external threat, we took immediate steps to prevent further impact to our systems,” Change Healthcare wrote on its status page. “This blockage is expected to last for at least days.”
The accident occurred on Wednesday morning in the U.S. It began on the East Coast of the United States, according to the event tracker.
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Nature of Change Healthcare Cybersecurity Disruption:
The specific nature of the cybersecurity incident was not disclosed. At the time of writing TechCrunch checked, most of Change Healthcare’s login page was down or offline.
Cyberattack’s Local Impact
Local Michigan newspaper Huron Daily Tribune is reporting that the Change Healthcare cyberattack is causing temporary disruptions at local pharmacies.
Scheurer Health, a Michigan healthcare provider, said on its Facebook page that it is not currently able to offer appointments scheduled through patients’ insurance, citing the “nationwide outage from the largest prescription processor in North America,” referring to Change Healthcare.
Change Healthcare is one of the largest healthcare technology companies in the United States. Change Healthcare handles patient payments for the United States health system. The tech giant proudly states on its website that it handles 15 billion healthcare transactions annually and that its clinical connectivity solutions support “one in three” U.S. healthcare transactions.
Optum in the Spotlight:
In 2022, health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group brokered a deal to diversify its services into a $7.8 billion deal that gave Optum expanded access to the patient records of tens of millions of Americans.
Optum provides technology and data to insurance companies and healthcare providers. Optum and Change Healthcare are both owned by health insurer Jadeja UnitedHealth Group.
When reached via email on Wednesday, Optum spokesperson Andrew Krejci declined to go further, saying he did not say what credential Optum had for the cybersecurity incident.
Spokespeople for Change Healthcare or UnitedHealth Group did not comment.
