On February 23, 2024, a cyberattack against the subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group Inc., Change Healthcare, caused a nationwide outage in pharmacy orders. The attack disrupted prescription processing and prevented patients from fulfilling prescriptions through their insurance due to the cyberattack on Change Healthcare.
On February 23, 2024, a cyberattack against the subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group Inc., Change Healthcare, caused a nationwide outage in pharmacy orders. The attack disrupted prescription processing and prevented patients from fulfilling prescriptions through their insurance due to the cyberattack on Change Healthcare.
UnitedHealth Group (UHG) announced that its subsidiary Change Healthcare was compromised by suspected nation state hackers.
Change Healthcare processes billions of healthcare transactions annually and claims to handle around one-in-three U.S patient records, amounting to around a hundred million Americans.
The ongoing outage at Change Healthcare is preventing patients from fulfilling prescriptions through their insurance due to the cyberattack.
Accuracy
No Contradictions at Time
Of
Publication
Deception
(30%)
The article contains several examples of deceptive practices. Firstly, the author claims that Change Healthcare was hacked by nation-state hackers without providing any evidence to support this claim. This is a lie by omission as there are no quotes or references in the article to back up this statement.
The author claims that Change Healthcare was compromised likely by government-backed hackers.
Fallacies
(75%)
The article contains several fallacies. Firstly, the author uses an appeal to authority by stating that UnitedHealth Group (UHG) blamed the cyberattack on suspected nation state hackers without providing any evidence or citing a specific source for this claim. Secondly, there is no clear distinction between formal and informal fallacies in the article. The use of inflammatory rhetoric can be seen when the author describes Change Healthcare as being
The cyberattack began early Wednesday,
Bias
(75%)
The author of the article is Zack Whittaker. The article reports that UnitedHealth Group (UHG) has filed a complaint with government regulators stating that its subsidiary Change Healthcare was hacked by suspected nation-state hackers. UHG claims to have no timeframe for when their systems will be back online and did not attribute the cyberattack to a specific nation or government, nor cited any evidence they had to support this claim. The article also reports that pharmacies across the US are unable to fulfill prescriptions through patients' insurance due to the ongoing outage at Change Healthcare which handles much of the billing process.
Change Healthcare has not yet disclosed the specific nature of its cyberattack
Several people who work in the healthcare space and whose work is affected by the outage tell TechCrunch that they are experiencing downtime because of the ongoing cyberattack
UHG blamed the ongoing cybersecurity incident affecting Change Healthcare on suspected nation state hackers
Site
Conflicts
Of
Interest (50%)
Zack Whittaker has a conflict of interest on the topic of UnitedHealth Group and Change Healthcare as he is reporting for TechCrunch which is owned by AOL Time Warner. This company may have financial ties to these companies or individuals that could compromise their ability to act objectively and impartially.
Zack Whittaker reports on the cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a U.S health insurance giant.
Author
Conflicts
Of
Interest (50%)
Zack Whittaker has a conflict of interest on the topics of UnitedHealth Group and Change Healthcare as he is reporting on their financial losses due to a cyberattack. He also reports on patient billing across the U.S., which could be seen as an indirect conflict of interest with his role at TechCrunch, which may have its own revenue streams from advertising related to healthcare companies.
Change Healthcare lost $25 million due to the cyberattack on their systems.
UnitedHealth says Change Healthcare hacked by nation state
Change Healthcare is a health-care technology company handling orders and patient payments throughout the U.S.
The attack is disrupting prescription orders at pharmacies across the country.
22nd Medical Group in Kansas put out a notice that it is experiencing temporary pharmacy outage due to the issue with Change Healthcare's systems.
Accuracy
Change Healthcare processes billions of healthcare transactions annually and claims to handle around one-in-three U.S patient records, amounting to around a hundred million Americans.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. experienced a cyberattack against its subsidiary Change Healthcare on February 21, 2023
Optum is part of the Optum information technology division and provides critical services to health-care providers across the sector
Deception
(100%)
None Found At Time Of
Publication
Fallacies
(80%)
The article contains several fallacies. The author uses an appeal to authority by citing Change Healthcare's statement without providing any evidence or context for their claims. Additionally, the author presents a dichotomous depiction of pharmacy operations as being either completely disrupted or not affected at all, which oversimplifies the situation and ignores potential nuances. The article also contains inflammatory rhetoric by using phrases such as 'nationwide outage' and 'cybersecurity issue'.
Change Healthcare is experiencing a network interruption related to a cyber security issue.
There is currently no publicly available report on the nature nor origin of the cyber security issue plaguing Change Healthcare.
Bias
(100%)
None Found At Time Of
Publication
Site
Conflicts
Of
Interest (50%)
Timothy Nerozzi has a conflict of interest on the topic of cyberattacks as he is reporting for Fox Business which is owned by News Corporation. Additionally, there are financial ties between Knight's Pharmacy in Berea, Kentucky and Change Healthcare which could compromise their ability to act objectively and impartially.
Knight's Pharmacy in Berea, Kentucky has financial ties with Change Healthcare which could compromise their ability to act objectively and impartially.
Timothy Nerozzi reports on the cyberattack at a health-care tech company that is owned by News Corporation.
Author
Conflicts
Of
Interest (50%)
The author has a conflict of interest on the topic of cyberattacks as they are reporting on Change Healthcare which is a health-care technology company that may have been affected by the cyberattack. The author also mentions Knight's Pharmacy in Berea, Kentucky and Walgreens and CVS pharmacies which could be potential competitors to Change Healthcare.
The article also mentions the potential for cyberattacks to affect other companies in the health-care industry such as prescription management services providers. The author does not disclose any financial ties or personal relationships with these companies.
The article reports on a cyberattack at Change Healthcare, a health-care technology company that provides prescription management services. The author mentions the impact of this attack on pharmacies nationwide, including Knight's Pharmacy in Berea, Kentucky and Walgreens and CVS pharmacies.
Cindi Beck went to the University of Utah Health pharmacy to pick up her prescription on Wednesday, but they told her their computers were having trouble and couldn't verify her insurance. She tried another pharmacy that also had issues with verifying insurance due to a cyber attack nationwide.
The Medicaid pharmacy vendor Optum is experiencing outages which have prevented Medicaid staff from accessing any pharmacy claim information. The University of Utah Health’s pharmacies experienced disruptions in their system and can't process insurance claims.
Accuracy
UnitedHealth Group (UHG) announced that its subsidiary Change Healthcare was compromised by suspected nation state hackers.
Change Healthcare processes billions of healthcare transactions annually and claims to handle around one-in-three U.S patient records, amounting to around a hundred million Americans.
The ongoing outage at Change Healthcare is preventing patients from fulfilling prescriptions through their insurance due to the cyberattack.
Deception
(100%)
None Found At Time Of
Publication
Fallacies
(70%)
The article contains an appeal to authority fallacy when it states that the Utah Department of Health and Human Services confirms a cyber security issue with Optum. The author does not provide any evidence or sources for this claim.
Bias
(85%)
The author uses language that dehumanizes the Medicaid program and its recipients. The use of phrases such as 'Medicaid pharmacy vendor Optum' implies a negative connotation towards the program and those who rely on it for medication.
> They said their computers were having trouble, and they couldn’t verify her insurance, so she tried another pharmacy.
Site
Conflicts
Of
Interest (50%)
Jenna Bree has a conflict of interest on the topic of cyber attacks affecting access to medication as she is an employee of Optum which provides pharmacy services and Medicaid coverage in Utah.
Author
Conflicts
Of
Interest (50%)
Jenna Bree has a conflict of interest on the topic of cyber attacks affecting access to medication as she is an employee of Optum which provides pharmacy services and Medicaid coverage.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. experienced a cyberattack against its subsidiary Change Healthcare on February 21, 2023
Change Healthcare is a key intermediary in the $1.5 trillion US health insurance market
Optum, a division of UnitedHealth, provides critical services to health-care providers across the sector
Accuracy
UnitedHealth found that Change Healthcare had access to subsidiary systems on February 21
Change Healthcare operates the largest medical electronic data interchange (EDI) clearinghouse in the country
The incident caused pharmacies unable to process prescriptions and delayed filling or refilling medications for some customers
Deception
(100%)
None Found At Time Of
Publication
Fallacies
(80%)
The article contains an example of a false dilemma fallacy. The author presents the situation as if there are only two options: either UnitedHealth is responsible for the cyberattack or it was not. However, this oversimplifies the complex nature of cybersecurity threats and ignores other possible factors that could have contributed to the attack.
]The incident is being investigated by law enforcement agencies and security experts but no one has yet been arrested or charged with any wrongdoing.
Bias
(85%)
The article reports that a cyberattack against UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s subsidiary Change Healthcare caused a nationwide outage of the computer network used to transmit data between health-care providers and insurance companies. The attack was attributed to a suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat actor, which prompted the company to disconnect its systems from other parties in order to prevent further impact. This incident is part of a series of attacks where hackers have compromised providers of back-end IT software and services, triggering cascading disruptions across their customer bases. The article also mentions that some pharmacies are experiencing issues due to the outage, which could delay filling or refilling medications.
The cyberattack against UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s subsidiary Change Healthcare caused a nationwide outage of the computer network used to transmit data between health-care providers and insurance companies.
, Change Healthcare is one of the largest healthcare technology companies in the United States and handles patient payments across the U.S. healthcare system.
Change Healthcare processes billions of healthcare transactions annually and claims to handle around one-in-three U.S patient records, amounting to around a hundred million Americans.
Accuracy
Change Healthcare is one of the largest healthcare technology companies in the United States and handles patient payments across the U.S. healthcare system.
UnitedHealth Group (UHG) announced that its subsidiary Change Healthcare was compromised by suspected nation state hackers.
The cyberattack began early Wednesday and has affected the billing process for many pharmacies across the U.S.
Deception
(100%)
None Found At Time Of
Publication
Fallacies
(85%)
The article contains several fallacies. The author uses an appeal to authority by stating that Change Healthcare is a U.S healthcare technology giant and one of the largest healthcare technology companies in the United States without providing any evidence or context for this claim.
>U.S health tech giant Change Healthcare has confirmed a cyberattack on its systems.<br>The incident began early on Wednesday morning on the U.S East Coast, according to the incident tracker.
Bias
(100%)
None Found At Time Of
Publication
Site
Conflicts
Of
Interest (50%)
Zack Whittaker has a financial tie to UnitedHealth Group as he is an employee of TechCrunch which is owned by AOL Time Warner. Additionally, Zack Whittaker may have personal relationships with executives at Optum and Scheurer Health as they are all part of the healthcare technology industry.
Optum and Scheurer Health are both companies in the healthcare technology industry.
Zack Whittaker works for TechCrunch, a company that is owned by AOL Time Warner which has financial ties to UnitedHealth Group.
Author
Conflicts
Of
Interest (50%)
Zack Whittaker has a conflict of interest on the topics of Change Healthcare and UnitedHealth Group as he is an employee of Optum, which is owned by UnitedHealth Group.
