Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Change Healthcare Hack Is Largest Breach Ever, Touching 100 Million

What many industry observers suggested is now confirmed: The Change Healthcare cyberattack earlier this year affected personal information of 100 million people, making it the nation’s largest-ever breach of healthcare data. Parent company UnitedHealthcare recently updated the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights confirming the scope of the impact. However, it could be months or years before the department completes its investigation of Change and determines a financial penalty if it …

Health Systems Break Ties With UnitedHealthcare

Several major health systems are struggling to reach contract agreements with UnitedHealthcare (UHC) to provide care services for members covered by the insurer. Recently, Duke Health posted in a blog that its UHC reimbursement is below the 25th percentile among similar hospitals in North Carolina, which it calls “unacceptable” as it continues contracting talks with UHC. If no agreement is achieved, Duke will be out-of-network as of November 1 for several health plan products, including …

What Did We Learn From the Change Healthcare Outage?

Phyllis Dobberstein, CPC, CPMA, CPCO, CEMC, CCC Nearly all of us in the healthcare ecosystem were impacted by the cyberattack on Change Healthcare in February that caused widespread network disruptions. Change Healthcare processes 15 billion healthcare transactions annually and is connected to one-third of patient medical records in the United States. More than 100 Change Healthcare applications across pharmacy, medical, dental, patient engagement, and payment services were affected by the disruptions. Months later, United Health Group …

Change Healthcare Facing Secondary Cyberattack

Another ransomware group, RansomHub, is allegedly attempting to extort UnitedHealth Group’s Change Healthcare unit in a second round of cyberattacks, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. They claim to possess 4 terabytes of Change’s data and have demanded payment, threatening to sell the sensitive health and financial information of millions of consumers on the dark web. Change Healthcare had previously paid $22 million to the BlackCat/ALPHV ransomware outfit after a February cyberattack that severely crippled the …

Quantifying the Change Healthcare Cyberattack

A survey conducted by the American Hospital Association (AHA) from March 9-12, 2024, found that among the 1,000 hospitals responding, 94% say they are experiencing financial impact related to the Change Healthcare cyberattack that was first discovered on February 21. According to AHA, more than half of the surveyed hospitals say they are facing “significant or serious” impact. Additionally, more than 80% of hospitals say the cyberattack has affected their cash flow, and 74% of …