NCPA Sues UnitedHealth and Subsidiaries for Massive Cyber Attack

The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) announced late July 2024 that it, along with dozens of providers from numerous states, had filed a class action lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group and its subsidiaries, Change Healthcare and Optum, due to a ransomware attack.

The Lawsuit

The suit alleges that in February 2024, Change Healthcare, which handles medical billing for a large portion of the health care industry, was hit with a massive ransomware attack that brought payment and claims processing to a screeching halt. Personal information for millions of people was compromised, including social security numbers, passport information, health information, and more.

“The fallout from this data breach has wreaked havoc on the healthcare industry,” claimed the plaintiff’s complaint. The complaint goes on to allege that Change Healthcare compounded the problem by shutting down their system without an alternative, leaving thousands of pharmacies in the lurch, with no way to process claims. “Because Defendants disconnected the Change Platform, many healthcare providers lost their primary (and in some cases their only) source of claims processing for their patients and did not receive payment. Healthcare providers had to absorb these upfront costs,” according to the complaint.

NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey says that UnitedHealth and its subsidiaries need to pay for their lax security. “NCPA was against UnitedHealth’s acquisition of Change from the start. This breach proves that bigger is not better and that consolidation often leads to inefficiencies. Companies are so big they cannot protect every entry point and cannot respond quickly due to internal bureaucracy,” said Hoey in a press release.

Reference

National Community Pharmacists Association. NCPA Leads Retail Pharmacy in a Class Action Suit Against Change Healthcare, UnitedHealth Group, and Optum for Data Breach and Losses. July 22, 2024. Accessed August 7, 2024. https://ncpa.org/newsroom/news-releases/2024/07/22/ncpa-leads-retail-pharmacy-class-action-suit-against-change