UnitedHealth says unit Change has restored and rebuilt functions handled by Amazon

Reuters

Published Mar 20, 2024 03:46PM ET

Updated Mar 20, 2024 04:53PM ET

(Reuters) -UnitedHealth Group said on Wednesday its unit Change Healthcare (NASDAQ:CHNG)'s cloud-based services for handling medical claims were completely rebuilt and restored, about a month after a cybersecurity attack on the subsidiary crippled healthcare in the United States.

Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN)'s cloud services for two of Change Healthcare's applications were restored from backups and cleared by their cybersecurity partners, the insurer said.

Change's Assurance and Relay Exchange are cloud-hosted applications that rely on authentication services. Assurance is a medical claims and remittance management software, while Relay Exchange acts as a clearinghouse which checks insurance claims for errors.

The services were "completely rebuilt" with the help of cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) and reviewed by Google-owned peer Mandiant, the company said, adding these were being monitored by at least two scanning services.

"We have taken every precaution and safety measure and implemented several rounds of security protocols — both internally and with our third-party partners — to ensure complete confidence in the platform," UnitedHealth (NYSE:UNH) said.

Change Healthcare, which processes about 50% of medical claims in the U.S. for around 900,000 physicians, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals and 600 laboratories, was breached on Feb. 21 by a hacking group called ALPHV, also known as "BlackCat".

With about 1 in 3 U.S. patient records handled by Change's health technology offerings, the cyberattack sent shockwaves across the nation's healthcare system and is now under investigation by the government health department.