MHE Question of the Week: Your Opinion of the Change Healthcare Cyberattack

Change Healthcare, a revenue cycle and healthcare analytics company now part of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division, was cyberattacked on Feb. 21, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing by UnitedHealth. To contain the attack, Change Healthcare’s information systems were disconnected. UnitedHealth said in the SEC filing that a “suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat actor” had been identified but hasn’t released any information on the perpetrator since. The outage has affected pharmacies throughout the country, including those at some military medical facilities. The American Hospital Association recommended that all healthcare organizations disrupted or “potentially exposed by this incident” consider disconnection from Optum. Numerous status updates on the situation on an Optum website, including one this morning at 8:04 a.m. EST, have said, "we have a high level of confidence that Optum, UnitedHealthcare and UnitedHealth Group systems have not been affected by this issue.”