Tag Archive for: Healthcare

Ransomware attacks targeting local healthcare groups

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Barbara McAneny with the New Mexico Cancer Center says they have had to change the way they work due to a string of ransomware attacks on Optum and United Health Care. “This is an important development for every health care entity in the country,” McAneny said.With Optum being one of their partners, it’s affected a number of services they provide.”Our ability to check whether or not patients are authorized by their insurance to get a prescription or treatment went away,” McAneny said.Due to the attack on Optum, the center also can’t submit claims or receive payments. Tech experts wonder how an attack like this continues to affect the health care industry.”It’s interesting given that the impact is so great that you would think that we would have turned the corner many years ago and started beefing up, you know, our cyber security programs in that space,” Deron Grzetich said.The New Mexico Cancer Center has not had its information breached — and has not been victim to this ransomware attack. But McAneny is concerned for other practices in the state and how this affects people’s ability to receive prescriptions, and if personal information is being stolen through other providers.Other groups affected by these ransomware attacks are UnitedHealth and Change Healthcare. “Anyone who’s filled a prescription or seen a physician or dentist or any health care provider is at risk to have their own personal identity stolen,” McAneny said.In the wake of this attack, she offers this to calm anyone seeking help at the cancer center.”We are going to be treating our patients as we always have,” McAneny said.She says the center is still able to fill prescriptions in-house, but can’t send orders to outside pharmacies.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —

Barbara McAneny with the New Mexico Cancer Center says they have had to change the way they work due to a string of ransomware attacks on Optum and United Health Care.

“This is an important development for every health care entity in the country,” McAneny said.

With Optum being one of their partners, it’s affected a number of services they provide.

“Our ability to check whether or not patients are authorized by their insurance to get…

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This week in the Change Healthcare attack fallout: 10 standout quotes

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Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.

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Ransomware Attack on Change Healthcare Wreaks Havoc on U.S. Medical Billing Systems

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One cybersecurity expert estimates some healthcare providers are losing $100 million per day because of the Change Healthcare ransomware attack.

Change Healthcare, a technology company owned by UnitedHealth that processes insurance claims and other critical hospital functions experienced a ransomware attack on February 21 that has continued to cause major disruptions to the nation’s medical payments infrastructure.

For more than a week and a half, the attack has threatened the security of patient data and is delaying many prescriptions at pharmacies and in hospitals around the country, as well as some healthcare worker paychecks, reports the Associated Press. Pharmacies such as CVS, Walgreens, Publix, and Good RX all have reported some disruption resulting from the attack, reports the Tennessean.

The ransomware attack against Change Healthcare is the most serious incident of its kind leveled against a healthcare organization in the U.S., according to the American Hospital Association (AHA). The company says it processes about 15 billion healthcare transactions every year and touches one in every three patient records.

One cybersecurity expert says some healthcare providers are losing more than $100 million per day due to the outage, reports CNN.

According to the AHA: “The staggering loss of revenue means that some hospitals and health systems may be unable to pay salaries for clinicians and other members of the care team, acquire necessary medicines and supplies, and pay for mission critical contract work in areas such as physical security, dietary and environmental services. In addition, replacing previously electronic processes with manual processes has often proved ineffective and is adding considerable administrative costs on providers, as well as diverting team members from other tasks.”

In response to the attack, Change Healthcare immediately isolated and disconnected the impacted systems, reports NBC News. UnitedHealth also stood up a “Temporary Funding Assistance Program” for hospitals affected by the breach, but according to the AHA, the funds “will not come close to meeting the needs of our members as they…

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Change Healthcare confirms ransomware attack, hackers claim massive data haul

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Optum’s Change Healthcare confirmed Feb. 29 that it was hacked by a ransomware gang after the group claimed to have stolen massive amounts of data.

“Change Healthcare can confirm we are experiencing a cybersecurity issue perpetrated by a cybercrime threat actor who has represented itself to us as ALPHV/Blackcat,” an Optum spokesperson emailed Becker’s on Feb. 29. “We are actively working to understand the impact to members, patients and customers.”

Many of Change Healthcare’s applications, which span revenue cycle management to prescription processing, have been down since Feb. 21, disrupting operations at hospitals, physician practices and pharmacies across the country.

ALPHV/Blackcat, aka BlackCat, claimed responsibility for the hack, posting on its dark web leak site that it stole 6 terabytes worth of Change Healthcare data involving “thousands of healthcare providers, insurance providers, pharmacies, etc,” Bleeping Computer reported Feb. 28. The allegedly stolen data includes medical records, patient Social Security numbers, and information on active military personnel (Change serves some military healthcare facilities).

But as Politico noted Feb. 28: “Ransomware groups, which demand extortion payments in exchange for restoring or not publishing stolen data, often exaggerate their exploits as a negotiating tactic.”

ALPHV/Blackcat, which has been linked to Russia, has been targeting the U.S. healthcare industry since December after the FBI disrupted its operations.

Change Healthcare said it is working with cybersecurity firms Palo Alto Network and Mandiant, a Google subsidiary, as well as law enforcement to address the cyberattack.

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