The unprecedented health-care hack that may affect you
In February, a massive cyberattack nearly brought down the entire U.S. health system. Doctors are still reeling, and many patients don\u2019t even know their data has been exposed. Today, Dan Diamond traces what went wrong and the new scrutiny in Congress.
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Even if UnitedHealthcare isn\u2019t your health insurer, the company has probably interacted with you or your data in some way. UnitedHealth Group is both the nation\u2019s largest insurer and its largest employer of physicians. It owns pharmacies and home health agencies. One of its subsidiaries, Change Healthcare, processes more than 40 percent of the country\u2019s medical claims, acting as a kind of \u201cinformation superhighway,\u201d explains the Post\u2019s national health reporter, Dan Diamond.
In February, hackers broke into that system and led to what is being described as the largest cyberattack ever in American health care. Behind the scenes, the attack froze health payments and compromised patient information. It spread pain across doctors and hospitals nationwide, especially in rural communities. It\u2019s still unclear how many people have been impacted, and the breach has yet to be fully resolved.
The chaos and fallout brought UnitedHealth Group\u2019s CEO, Andrew Witty, to testify this week before Congress for the first time in more than 15 years. During separate House and Senate committee hearings, representatives grilled Witty on why basic security safeguards were lacking and, more broadly, whether UnitedHealth Group might have become too big, raising bigger questions about how U.S. health care operates.
Today\u2019s show was produced by Elana Gordon. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks also to Stephen Smith.
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