WFLA

Cyberattack causes some patients to face dramatic price increases

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A cyberattack is crippling the nation’s largest healthcare payment system and the impact is being felt in Tampa Bay, as some people face dramatic price increases for critical medication.

The Change Healthcare cyber security incident has the potential to put people and their health in jeopardy.

Several pharmacies nationwide are dealing with delays and disappointed customers.

“Everything we submit comes back ‘denied’ or for some reason they can’t accept it,” Michael Dougherty said. 

Dougherty is already paying sky-high prices for prescriptions, but this week his trip to the pharmacy came with an unwelcome surprise.

“I usually pay for this one medication $417 dollar a month,” Dougherty said. “Now it has gone to $1,750 a month without the discount.”

His plight is part of a national issue that’s jilting pharmacies that are unable to process manufacturer and discount cards.

Statement from Change Healthcare:

Change Healthcare can confirm we experienced a cybersecurity issue perpetrated by a cybercrime threat actor who has represented itself to us as ALPHV/Blackcat. 

Our experts are working to address the matter and we are working closely with law enforcement and leading third-party consultants, such as Mandiant and Palo Alto Networks, on this attack against Change Healthcare’s systems. We are actively working to understand the impact to members, patients and customers.

Patient care is our top priority, and we have multiple workarounds to ensure people have access to the medications and the care they need. Based on our ongoing investigation, there is no indication that Optum, UnitedHealthcare and UnitedHealth Group systems have been affected by this issue.

We’ve made progress in providing workarounds and temporary solutions to bring systems back online in pharmacy, claims and payments. We continue to be proactive and aggressive with all our systems, and if we suspect any issue with the system, we will immediately take action.