Pharmacy delays across U.S. blamed on nation-state hackers

Change Healthcare, a technology services provider for pharmacies, experienced a cyberattack from a suspected nation-state threat actor that has created widespread delays for patients who need prescription refills across the US.

Change Healthcare is a part of Optum Solutions, which in turn is part of the healthcare conglomerate UnitedHealth Group. Optum said all indications suggest the cyber incident is limited to Change Healthcare only and has not spread to other UnitedHealth entities. The outage, which began on Feb. 20, is likely to last until Friday, Feb. 23, the company predicts.

On Feb. 22, United HealthCare filed its required 8-K disclosure of a material cyber incident that said Change Healthcare had its systems breached by a suspected nation-state actor that was able to gain temporary access to the healthcare tech vendor’s systems until they were taken offline.

According to the HIPAA Journal, Change Healthcare is responsible for 15 billion healthcare transactions annually, and about a third of US patients use its connectivity solutions.

Change Healthcare systems being pulled offline has caused delays at pharmacies all over the country, prompting one Michigan retailer to ask customers to wait an extra day to refill meds, if possible, according to reports.

But the fallout might not be limited to pharmacies and could have exposed patient data as well, according to Nick Tausek, lead security automation architect at Swimlane.

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