Cyberattack on Medical Billing Company Causes Delays at U.S. Pharmacies

By Matis Glenn

Pharmacies nationwide are facing delays in filling prescriptions as the largest pharmaceutical billing company in the country experienced a cyberattack on Wednesday.

Change Healthcare, owned by UnitedHealth Group, wrote on its status page that it became aware of an “outside threat,” on Wednesday, and “took immediate action to disconnect our systems to prevent further impact.”

The company acts as a middle-man between insurance companies that pay for medicine and the pharmacies that sell them.

It is not yet known if sensitive patient information was leaked during the attack. Techradar reports that the circumstances point to a “ransomware” incident, where hackers hold a company’s data and servers hostage until money is paid, but Change has not commented on the nature of the attack.

The manager of a Midwood pharmacy told Hamodia that while he typically uses Change to process orders, he has been able to avoid delays in filling prescriptions by using a different billing company temporarily, but the pharmacy will experience disruptions if Change doesn’t resume service in the next few days.