On February 21, 2024, UnitedHealth Group reported that a threat actor had unauthorized access to one of its Change Healthcare environments.
The reported hack impacted billing and care authorization portals, causing prescription backlogs and revenue losses for providers. This situation poses potential threats to worker paychecks and patient care.
The devastating consequences of the biggest cyberattack on healthcare have reverberated throughout the industry and raised questions about how the massive insurer is handling the fallout.
How United Healthcare is Exploiting “An Emergency They Created”
Furthermore, UnitedHealth’s exploitation of the crisis, an “emergency it created” raises serious ethical concerns.
The recent ransomware attack left an Oregon medical practice in dire straits, with UnitedHealth swooping in for an emergency takeover.
This move, amidst the chaos caused by the weeks-long outage of UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare systems, seems opportunistic and callous. Instead of proactively assisting struggling healthcare providers, UnitedHealth has seemingly profited from the situation.
This underscores the troubling power dynamics in healthcare, where a massive insurer with extensive resources can pressure struggling providers into selling. It’s a reminder of the need for transparency and accountability in the healthcare industry. Patients and providers alike deserve better than to be at the mercy of big insurance and its profit-driven interests.
For example, providers like Dr. Margaret Parsons in Sacramento, California, are facing serious challenges after the cyberattack. Since the attack, Parsons and her colleagues have been unable to bill for their services electronically, leading to financial strain and uncertainty. This situation highlights the potential risks of consolidating vast amounts of sensitive information under a single entity. The attack has exposed the fragility of relying on a single company to manage such critical systems and underscores the danger of UnitedHealth’s power.
Senate Will Investigate
The Senate’s set to “grill” UnitedHealth over the recent cyberattack on Change Healthcare. The fallout from this attack is clearly tragic and its significance cannot be ignored. Providers struggle with copious delayed payments and patients cannot obtain the medications they need.
“I’m hundreds of hours unpaid at this time,” Amy Zelidman, a private practice psychologist wrote. “It feels as though people in my field with smaller practices have been put on the back burner while they prioritize larger health care organizations, which is disheartening and maddening because the damage is so immediate.”
This scenario underscores a larger damaging trend of providers being at the mercy of behemoth providers like UnitedHealth, absorbing the consequences of UH’s carelessness.
Using Litigation to Recover Funds
Litigation is being used as a strategy for providers to regain funds after one of the biggest healthcare cyber attacks in history.
Provider lawsuits are piling up against UnitedHealth and Change Healthcare following the February 21 attack that disrupted operations nationwide.
In fact, at least six federal lawsuits were filed between March 14 and 20, with practices citing financial losses from missing payments and service disruptions.
For example, Advanced Obstetrics & Gynecology in Mississippi, the first to file, alleged that Change Healthcare’s actions led to a cutoff from vital services and impacted payment for patient care.
Bay Area Therapy Group in California also had to resort to emergency loans at 50% interest to maintain operations.
This different form of litigation aims to hold UnitedHealthcare accountable for their mishandling of the devastating attack.
