Communication is key in managing cyberattack: Optum CEO
UnitedHealth Group's (UNH) Change Healthcare subsidiary is expected to have a "material update" as early as Tuesday following a major ransomware attack that's now on its fifth straight day and stalling care around the country.
Change Healthcare helps process claims and payments for healthcare companies, including hospitals and pharmacies.
Dr. Amar Desai, CEO of Optum Health, a UnitedHealthcare business segment, said the company is working to resolve the issue. He and other Optum leaders have been on daily calls with the C-suites of impacted companies, especially chief security, chief information, and chief technology officers.
The company is "making sure that we have very, very robust ways of communicating with one another, and ensuring that ... in instances like this, we're aligned in the response," Desai said at the Vive healthcare conference in Los Angeles on Monday on a panel with Huntington Health CEO Dr. Lori Morgan, moderated by Yahoo Finance.
United first notified the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) about the issue on Thursday, noting the attack began on Feb. 21. The company "identified a suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat actor," according to the filing.
The state-sponsored actor has since been identified as Blackcat, a Russian-sponsored ransomware group, Optum said.
Blackcat, also known as ALPHV, was infiltrated by the FBI at the end of last year, but the agency was unsuccessful in shutting it down. The criminal group has continued attacking health companies and government sites in the months before and since.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) has advised health systems to disconnect from Change Healthcare and to create alternate plans in the event the attack continues for longer than expected.
"As of this date, Change Healthcare has not provided a specific timeframe for which recovery of the impacted applications is expected," AHA said in a statement Saturday.
As of Monday, Change posted an update saying the company took action to disconnect as soon as the threat was identified, and "that Optum, UnitedHealthcare and UnitedHealth Group systems have not been affected by this issue."
The company previously said it would not take shortcuts to restore activity, and added Monday that it "will continue to be proactive and aggressive with all our systems and if we suspect any issue with the system, we will immediately take action and disconnect."
It is not yet clear, and may not be for some time, how many partners of Change Healthcare were affected and to what degree.
Anjalee Khemlani is the senior health reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering all things pharma, insurance, care services, digital health, PBMs, and health policy and politics. Follow Anjalee on all social media platforms @AnjKhem.
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