By Kimberly Wright – Fox 5 Las Vegas
(Gray News) – Some pharmacies across the country are having trouble processing some prescriptions because of a cyberattack.
UnitedHealth Group disclosed the cyberattack in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.
The company says “a suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat actor” gained access to its Change Healthcare information technology systems, which processes insurance for prescriptions for tens of thousands of pharmacies nationwide.
UnitedHealth says it became aware of the cyberattack Wednesday and expected it to last through at least Thursday.
The company said it has isolated the attack and is working to restore its systems. Law enforcement has also been notified.
“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. At this time, we believe the issue is specific to Change Healthcare and all other systems across UnitedHealth Group are operational,” the company said in a status update.
Pharmacy giant CVS said in a statement that they are aware of the situation “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.”
CVS said they have plans in place to minimize disruptions and apologized for any inconvenience. “We’re committed to ensuring access to care as we navigate through this interruption,” the company said.