\n\tDarius Tahir<\/span><\/p>\n

Early in the morning of Feb. 21, Change Healthcare, a company unknown to most Americans that plays a huge role in the U.S. health system, issued a brief statement<\/a> saying some of its applications were \u201ccurrently unavailable.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the afternoon, the company described the situation as a \u201ccyber security\u201d problem.<\/p>\n

Since then, it has rapidly blossomed into a crisis.<\/p>\n

The company, recently purchased by insurance giant UnitedHealth Group, reportedly suffered a cyberattack. The impact is wide and expected to grow. Change Healthcare\u2019s business is maintaining health care\u2019s pipelines \u2014 payments, requests for insurers to authorize care, and much more. Those pipes handle a big load: Change says on its website<\/a>, \u201cOur cloud-based network supports 14 billion clinical, financial, and operational transactions annually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initial media reports have focused on the impact on pharmacies, but techies say that\u2019s understating the issue. The American Hospital Association says many<\/a> of its members aren\u2019t getting paid and that doctors can\u2019t check whether patients have coverage for care.<\/p>\n

But even that\u2019s just a slice of the emergency: CommonWell<\/a>, an institution that helps health providers share medical records, information critical to care, also relies on Change technology. The system contained records<\/a> on 208 million individuals as of July 2023. Courtney Baker, CommonWell marketing manager, said the network \u201chas been disabled out of an abundance of caution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s small ripple pools that will get bigger and bigger over time, if it doesn\u2019t get solved,\u201d Saad Chaudhry, chief digital and information officer at Luminis Health, a hospital system in Maryland, told KFF Health News.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about the hack:<\/p>\n

Who Did It?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Media reports are fingering ALPHV, a notorious ransomware group also known as Blackcat, which has become the target of numerous law enforcement agencies worldwide. While UnitedHealth Group has said it is a \u201csuspected nation-state associated\u201d attack, some outside analysts dispute the linkage<\/a>. The gang has previously been blamed for hacking casino companies MGM and Caesars, among many other targets.<\/p>\n

The Department of Justice alleged in December<\/a>, before the Change hack, that the group\u2019s victims had already paid it hundreds of millions of dollars in ransoms.<\/p>\n

Is This a New Problem?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely not. A study published in JAMA Health Forum in December 2022 found that the annual number of ransomware attacks against hospitals and other providers doubled from 2016 to 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more of the same, man,\u201d said Aaron Miri, the chief digital and information officer at Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida.<\/p>\n

Because the assaults disable the target\u2019s computer systems, providers have to shift to paper, slowing them down and making them vulnerable to missing information.<\/p>\n

Further, a study published in May 2023 in JAMA Network Open examining the effects of an attack on a health system found that waiting times, median length of stay, and incidents of patients leaving against medical advice all increased \u2014 at neighboring emergency departments. The results, the authors wrote<\/a>, mean cyberattacks \u201cshould be considered a regional disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attacks have devastated rural hospitals, Miri said. And wherever health care providers are hit, patient safety issues follow.<\/p>\n

What Does It Mean for Patients?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\tIf You\u2019re Caught in a Cybersecurity Breach, Here Are Steps to Take:\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t<\/h3>\n
\u2013 Monitor the notices and bills you receive from insurers and providers. Contact them immediately if anything seems suspicious.\u2013 If a medical provider requests your Social Security number on intake forms, leave the space blank<\/a>, and politely push back if they insist.\u2013 If your health plan offers free credit or identity theft monitoring following a breach, take it.If you\u2019re concerned your data has been compromised: <\/strong>\u2013 Go to the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s identity theft site<\/a> to file an identity theft report, if appropriate.\u2013 If someone used your name to get medical care, contact every provider who may have been involved and get copies of your medical records. Correct any errors.\u2013 Notify your health plan\u2019s fraud department and send a copy of the FTC identity theft report.\u2013 File free fraud alerts with the three major credit reporting agencies.Michelle Andrews<\/em><\/p>\n
Year after year, more Americans\u2019 health data is breached. That exposes people to identity theft and medical error.<\/p>\n
Care can also suffer. For example, a 2017 attack, dubbed \u201cNotPetya,\u201d forced a rural West Virginia hospital<\/a> to reboot its operations and hit pharma company Merck so hard<\/a> it wasn\u2019t able to fulfill production targets for an HPV vaccine.<\/p>\n
Because of the Change Healthcare attack, some patients may be routed to new pharmacies less affected by billing problems. Patients\u2019 bills may also be delayed, industry executives said. At some point, many patients are likely to receive notices their data was breached. Depending on the exact data that has been pilfered, those patients may be at risk for identity theft, Chaudhry said. Companies often offer free credit monitoring services in those situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cPatients are dying because of this,\u201d Miri said. Indeed, an October preprint from researchers at the University of Minnesota found a nearly 21% increase<\/a> in mortality for patients in a ransomware-stricken hospital.<\/p>\n
How Did It Happen?<\/strong><\/p>\n
The Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center, an industry coordinating group that disseminates intel on attacks, has told its members<\/a> that flaws in an application called ConnectWise ScreenConnect are to blame. Exact details couldn\u2019t be confirmed.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a tool tech support teams use to remotely troubleshoot computer problems, and the attack is \u201capparently fairly trivial to execute,\u201d H-ISAC warned members. The group said it expects additional victims and advised its members to update their technology. When the attack first hit, the AHA recommended its members<\/a> disconnect from systems both at Change and its corporate parent, UnitedHealth\u2019s Optum unit. That would affect services ranging from claims approvals to reference tools.<\/p>\n
Millions of Americans see physicians and other practitioners employed by UnitedHealth and are covered by the company\u2019s insurance plans.<\/p>\n
UnitedHealth has said only Change\u2019s systems are affected and that it\u2019s safe for hospitals to use other digital services provided by UnitedHealth and Optum, which include claims filing and processing systems.<\/p>\n
But not many chief information officers \u201care jumping to reconnect,\u201d Chaudhry said. \u201cIt\u2019s an uneasy feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Miri says Baptist is using the conglomerate\u2019s technology and that he trusts UnitedHealth\u2019s word that it\u2019s safe.<\/p>\n
Where\u2019s the Federal Government?<\/strong><\/p>\n
Neither executive was sanguine about the future of cybersecurity in health care. \u201cIt\u2019s going to get worse,\u201d Chaudhry said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a shame the feds aren\u2019t helping more,\u201d Miri said. \u201cYou\u2019d think if our nuclear infrastructure were under attack the feds would respond with more gusto.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the departments of Justice and State have targeted the ALPHV group, the government has stayed behind the scenes more in the aftermath of this attack. Chaudhry said the FBI and the Department of Health and Human Services have been attending calls organized by the AHA to brief members about the situation.<\/p>\n
Miri said rural hospitals in particular could use more funding for security and that agencies like the Food and Drug Administration should have mandatory standards for cybersecurity.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s some recognition among officials that improvements need to be made.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis latest attack is just more evidence that the status quo isn\u2019t working and we have to take steps to shore up cybersecurity in the health industry,\u201d said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and a longtime advocate for stronger cybersecurity, in a statement to KFF Health News.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Darius Tahir Early in the morning of Feb. 21, Change Healthcare, a company unknown to most Americans that plays a huge role in the U.S. health system, issued a brief statement saying some of its applications were \u201ccurrently unavailable.\u201d By the afternoon, the company described the situation as a \u201ccyber security\u201d problem. Since then, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2488,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2486\/revisions\/2488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}