Prescription orders are being delayed at pharmacies across the country as a result of a cyberattack on Change Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest healthcare IT companies. Change Healthcare discovered a “cyber security issue” affecting its networks on Wednesday morning on the East Coast. It comes amid a catastrophic cell outage that has affected millions of consumers across the country, paralyzing 911 systems and leaving people without coverage on the largest networks. According to one expert, the outage could have been caused by “human error,” although a “solar flare” has also been suggested as a possible explanation for the cell issues.
Change Healthcare is in no doubt the problems facing their systems have been caused by a cyberattack
But Change Healthcare is in no doubt the problems facing their systems have been caused by a cyberattack. In a statement, Change Healthcare said: “Change Healthcare is experiencing a network interruption related to a cyber security issue and our experts are working to address the matter. Once we became aware of the outside threat, in the interest of protecting our partners and patients, we took immediate action to disconnect our systems to prevent further impact,” The company added: “We will provide updates as more information becomes available.” Across the country, pharmacies have issued notices that the attack on Change Healthcare is disrupting their ability to process patients’ orders.
A message from the 22nd Medical Group, a medical centre located near McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, reads: “We are having a brief pharmacy outage at the 22d Medical Group. We understand the trouble this may create and appreciate your patience while we work hard to remedy the problem. “Our team is working to restore full pharmacy services as soon as possible.” “The estimated resolution date for this issue is tomorrow or later.” We will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates on our progress. There is currently no publicly available report on the nature or origin of the cyber security issue plaguing Change Healthcare.
“There is a nationwide outage from some of the largest prescription processors in North America,” Michigan-based Canadian Lakes Pharmacy wrote on social media Wednesday. The announcement continued, “We CAN receive your RX but for MOST insurance plans we cannot bill your insurance company. If you can wait a day or so to pick up your RX that would be great. If you need it today we can do our best to accommodate individual needs.” The service outage is expected to last until tomorrow but Change Healthcare has not given a definitive timeline for a service return.