cyberattack

While Ascension facilities remain open in Florida and elsewhere in the national chain, staff have to use manual processes they left behind some 20 years ago while the IT system remains down.

The health system says it is making progress restoring its network. Meantime, the chain's Florida facilities are seeing patients, although delays should be expected due to the transition to paper records.

Ascension, which runs hospitals and clinics in North Florida, is investigating whether patient data was affected. Meantime, electronic health records are down and "nonemergent" procedures are postponed.

Andrew Witty's admission did not sit well with Senate Finance Committee members, who spent more than two hours questioning the CEO about the cyberattack and broader health care issues.

It may take several months of analysis before UnitedHealth can identify and notify people who were affected in the February hack of the Change Healthcare subsidiary.

The February breach halted payments to doctors and disrupted patients' access to health records. One provider laments it is "more devastating than COVID.” Yet, UnitedHealth reports much is back to normal.

In Florida, providers may be down as much as $1 billion in payments as a result of the ransomware attack at Change Healthcare, a company that essentially allows providers to get paid.

Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association, said the group has over 100 hospitals that directly contract with Change Healthcare, the target of the cyberattack.

The cyberattack on a unit of UnitedHealth Group’s Optum division is the worst on the health care industry in U.S. history, hospitals say. Providers struggling to get paid for care say the response by the insurer and the Biden administration has been inadequate.

Change Healthcare, a firm recently bought by UnitedHealth Group, reportedly suffered a cyberattack. The company processes 14 billion transactions annually, including payments and requests for insurance authorizations.