Updated IT provider Change Healthcare has confirmed it shut down some of its systems following a cyberattack, disrupting prescription orders and other services at pharmacies across the US. The technology outfit is one of the largest in the country of its kind, and is used by pharmacists to check patients' eligibility for treatments and process orders for medication given their insurance situation, among many other things.
Pulling the plug on its backend services has hit pharmacies relying on its tech, including CVS, and forced some folks to pay for their medication at full price in cash.
The healthcare biz said it expects the disruption to last throughout the day and into Friday, if not longer, and promised to provide updates as additional information becomes available.
Pharmacies across the country reported outages and were unable to fill patients' prescriptions using their insurance because of the Change Healthcare disruption, according to media reports.
Athenahealth is one of the affected Change Healthcare customers, according to Forbes.
Healthcare exec David Chou, who wrote the Forbes article, said because of the Change Healthcare issue, he had to pay the cash price for a prescription at a CVS pharmacy.
We are aware that Change Healthcare is experiencing a network interruption that is impacting certain CVS Health business operations, as well as the operations of other companies nationally.
There is no indication that CVS Health's systems have been compromised.
We're committed to ensuring access to care as we navigate through this interruption.
We have business continuity plans in place to minimize disruption of service and apologize for any inconvenience our customers and members may experience.
We're continuing to fill prescriptions but in certain cases we are not able to process insurance claims, which our business continuity plan is addressing to ensure patients continue to have access to their medications.
Meanwhile Michigan's Scheurer Health was unable to process prescriptions at any of its family pharmacy locations on Wednesday, also due to the Change Healthcare outage.
The Register also heard reports of Publix pharmacies being affected by the disruption and has reached out to that retail chain for comment.
The FBI declined to comment on the matter.
This Cyber News was published on go.theregister.com. Publication date: Thu, 22 Feb 2024 21:43:08 +0000