Cyberattack shuts down pharmacies across the US

Change Healthcare, a major health tech company that handles patient payments and prescription processing across the US, has been hit by a cyberattack that’s affecting pharmacies across the country.

The Tennessee-based company, which is part of Optum and owned by UnitedHealth Group, boasts that it handles 15 billion healthcare transactions annually.

In the latest incident report on its website, the company stated: “Change Healthcare is experiencing a cybersecurity issue, and our experts are working to address the matter.”

According to healthcare cybersecurity media outlet HealthITSecurity, Change Healthcare first noticed initial disruptions to its applications on Wednesday, reporting “enterprise-wide connectivity issues” a few hours later on the company’s website, and fully labeling it as a “cybersecurity issue” hours after that. The company then disconnected its systems to prevent the issue from spreading.

Pharmacies across the US are unable to process prescription orders—such as Kansas-based 22nd Medical Group, which put out a post explaining that it’s experiencing a “temporary pharmacy outage,” according to Fox Business.

Other pharmacies, such as those owned by Missouri-based family practice Scheurer Health, announced that they are still able to accept prescriptions but are unable to process the medications through patients’ insurance.

“We are being told that this is temporary but have not been given a time for restored services,” Scheurer Health posted on Facebook. Later, the company said it’s “back up and running,” though Facebook commenters said they still faced issues with their prescriptions.

“At this time, we believe the issue is specific to Change Healthcare and all other systems across UnitedHealth Group are operational,” Change Healthcare said in an update. “The disruption is expected to last at least through the day. We will provide updates as more information becomes available.”