UnitedHealth discloses potential theft of data from one-third of Americans

The Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services have announced the discontinuation of a program designed to assist Medicare providers and suppliers impacted by disruptions at UnitedHealth’s technology division, Change Healthcare. 

Initiated in response to a hack at Change Healthcare on February 21st by threat actor ‘BlackCat’, the program will now cease accepting new applications as of July 12. It has distributed over $2.55 billion in expedited payments to 4,200 providers such as hospitals and $717.18 million to suppliers including doctors, non-physician practitioners and durable medical equipment suppliers, with a significant portion of these funds already recovered. Providers are now able to effectively submit claims to Medicare.

The cyber incident in February affected a key player in processing medical claims. The US Change Healthcare handles approximately half of all medical claims in the United States, serving about 900,000 physicians, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals, and 600 laboratories, adding to the growing cyber threat posed to the healthcare industry.