According to UnitedHealth Group, the impact of the cyberattack that occurred at its Change Healthcare business last year is far more extensive than previously thought, affecting around 190 million patients, as opposed to the first estimates of roughly 100 million.
The revised figure broadens the reach beyond what firm CEO Andrew Witty had previously stated in congressional testimony in May, when he implied that the hack would impact data for one in three Americans.
over one in two Americans are believed to be impacted by the hack, given that there are over 341 million people living in the United States.
For those impacted by a data breach, the Federal Trade Commission provides a variety of guidance at IdentityTheft.gov/databreach. Additionally, credit bureaus like Experian provide comprehensive guidance on how to react.
Through IDX, UnitedHealth Group is providing free identity protection and credit monitoring services. People can enroll by calling the toll-free number 888-846-4705 or by using the link atchangecybersupport.com. Customers can contact Change Healthcare at 866-262-5342, which is a toll-free number, for more assistance.
Prior to Friday, the event was by far the biggest breach currently displayed on the federal website, which does not list a 2015 hack at Anthem Inc., a health insurer that compromised the data of roughly 79 million people.
According to a statement released Friday afternoon by UnitedHealth Group, Change Healthcare has calculated that the overall number of people affected by the Change Healthcare hack is around 190 million. Individual or alternative notice has already been given to the great majority of those individuals.
The business also stated that it has not observed electronic medical record databases show up in the data throughout the analysis and is not aware of any misuse of personal information as a result of this occurrence.
The largest health insurer in the US, UnitedHealthcare, is owned by the Eden Prairie-based UnitedHealth Group. It also has a rapidly expanding health services division named Optum, which in 2022 paid $13 billion to purchase Change Healthcare.
Before the theft, Change Healthcare handled almost 15 billion health care transactions yearly, handling a significant portion of all health care claims and payments in the United States. According to federal officials, the hack affected 1 in 3 patient records.
UnitedHealth Group shut down Change Healthcare’s medical claims processing system in order to mitigate the damage posed by the cyberattack, which caused financial issues for clinics and hospitals nationwide. Some patients reported difficulty filling prescriptions as a result of the outage, which temporarily also slowed down drugstore counters.
To find out whether there was a breach of protected health information and whether UnitedHealth Group and Change Healthcare complied with federal privacy, security, and breach notification regulations, the federal government launched an inquiry earlier this year.
The business began informing patients about the theft in July, stating that data from Social Security numbers to medical problems might have been compromised.
Change Healthcare’s impacted systems have been fixed, according to UnitedHealth Group.
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