CBS News
Health care providers may be losing up to $100 million a day from cyberattack. A doctor shares the latest
Last month’s suspected ransomware attack on a major health technology company has sent the health care system reeling — costing providers an estimated $100 million daily as payment disruptions continue, according to an estimate from First Health Advisory, a digital health risk assurance firm.
“This is by far the biggest ever cybersecurity attack on the American healthcare system ever,” Dr. Céline Gounder, a CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, said Tuesday. “This is a system, Change Healthcare, that processes medical payments and touches one out of every three patients in this country. So the magnitude of the scope of this attack is really quite large.”
Change Healthcare is a Tennessee-based company, part of the health services provider Optum, Inc. and owned by the massive conglomerate UnitedHealth Group. It first reported experiencing company-wide connectivity problems in February.
Here’s what else to know:
What is the attack impacting?
Gounder says providers are facing numerous challenges due to the cyberattack, including impacts to a provider’s ability to bill and process things like prior authorizations.
“Can you get those medications? Can you get an estimate, say, on a surgery that you want to schedule? What is that going to look like in terms of your insurance coverage, and so on. All of those kinds of things are being affected,” she said.
It’s also affecting patients’ ability to fill their prescriptions at some hospitals.
“Here, for example, we’re only able to give some patients only two weeks of refill,” Gounder said. “So it means that they may need to come back over and over again. And some patients are even having to pay out of pocket for their refills.”
Is the government doing anything to help?
On March 5, almost two weeks after Change Healthcare first reported what it initially called a cybersecurity “issue,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced several assistance programs for health providers affected.
“The government is trying to create some supports for health care systems — not directly supporting patients, but the systems,” Gounder explains. “This is because without revenue coming in through the billing process, you don’t have money to make payroll to be able to pay your doctors and your nurses and your janitors and all the staff that you need to run a health care system.”
It’s also interfering with the ability to order needed medications and supplies, she adds.
“So the idea is to try to help support health care systems through this, but especially Medicaid providers, those who have less of a buffer, so to speak, financially — they’re really in deep trouble here,” Gounder said.
HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, White House domestic policy chief Neera Tanden and other administration officials met Tuesday with United Health CEO Andrew Witty and urged him to take more steps to stabilize the U.S. health system amid the payment crisis, two sources briefed on the meeting told CBS News.
Officials encouraged UnitedHealth and other insurers in attendance to account for premiums that they’re collecting from patients but not paying out to health care providers, as unpaid bills pile up for hospitals, medical practices and pharmacies nationwide.
Doesn’t HIPAA protect health information?
While there are tight controls around patient records, Gounder says there are potential loopholes hackers could exploit. For example, a medical device connected to the hospital’s internet or an HVAC system could be vulnerable.
“Those provide backdoors to enter and hack the internet system of a health care system,” Gounder explains.
–Nicole Sganga contributed reporting.
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Puerto Rico comments from speaker at Trump rally draw criticism while Harris’ plan for the island gets Bad Bunny endorsement
With nine days until Election Day, Puerto Rico has been thrust into the spotlight by both campaigns. Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled a plan to assist the island — leading to an endorsement from Bad Bunny — while Puerto Rico was referred to as “a floating island of garbage” by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who spoke at a rally for former President Donald Trump in New York City.
In an effort to court Puerto Rican voters in the U.S. mainland, Harris on Sunday posted a video on her social media platforms pledging to create a Puerto Rican task force to create jobs, cut red tape to ensure disaster recovery funds are used quickly and efficiently and work with leaders across the island to ensure Puerto Ricans have access to reliable and affordable electricity.
Rapper and singer Bad Bunny, a global superstar from Puerto Rico, shared the vice president’s video on his Instagram account with his 45 million followers and later posted a clipped portion of the video in which Harris slammed Trump for his response to Hurricane Maria, which devastated the island in 2017.
“I will never forget what Donald Trump did and what he did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader,” Harris said in the video. “He abandoned the island, tried to block aid after back-to-back devastating hurricanes, and offered nothing more than paper towels and insults.”
In 2017, Trump visited the island to survey damage after Hurricane Maria struck as a major Category 4 storm. While visiting with survivors, the former president at one point threw paper towels into the crowd when distributing supplies, a move that was criticized as callous amid widespread frustration over the federal response to the hurricane that left much of the island without power and food.
A source close to Bad Bunny confirmed to CBS News that the Instagram post represents an endorsement of the vice president, breaking from Bad Bunny’s longstanding tradition to not weigh in on national politics. It’s a coveted endorsement with weight that both political parties have long hoped to achieve to strengthen inroads with Latino voters, given Bad Bunny’s global popularity.
Moments before Bad Bunny’s endorsement, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe targeted Puerto Rico during a set of disparaging jokes while speaking at a Trump rally in Madison Square Garden.
“I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now,” Hinchcliffe said. “I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
Trump senior advisor Danielle Alvarez told CBS News, “this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign” adding that the jokes were not reviewed or pre-approved.
Hinchcliffe’s remarks, which also included offensive jokes about Black people and Latinos, were met with swift backlash, with several celebrities coming out in defense of Puerto Rico, Latinos in the U.S. and voicing their support for Harris’ plan for the island. Among those who weighed in were Jennifer Lopez, Ariana DeBose and Ricky Martin. Martin, with over 18 million followers, took to Instagram and posted, “Puerto Rico, this is what they think of us, vote for Kamala Harris.”
Several Democratic and Republican politicians were also among those to denounce Hinchcliffe’s swing at Puerto Ricans, who make up a crucial voting group.
Harris’ running mate Gov. Tim Walz said during a livestream with Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, “There are hundreds of thousands of Puerto Ricans across battleground states. They need to vote.”
Ocasio-Cortez agreed with Walz and directed her comments toward Puerto Ricans in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania. “If you’re in Reading, if you’re in Philly, look at that trash,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to Hinchcliffe’s joke. “What is trash is people actually just thinking of other human beings that way.”
Pennsylvania is home to over 579,000 eligible Latino voters with roughly 50% residing within the “222 Corridor” — a stretch of small cities west and north of Philadelphia including Reading, Allentown and Bethlehem.
With Trump winning the Keystone State in 2016 by 44,000 votes and Biden taking it by 81,000 in 2020, slim margins are again expected to determine the outcome of the presidential election.
Harris on Sunday spoke directly to Latino voters while visiting a local Puerto Rican restaurant in Philadelphia. “When I was in the Senate, knowing Puerto Rico doesn’t have a senator, I always felt a need and an obligation to do what I could as a senator to make sure that Puerto Rico’s needs were met,” Harris said.
Harris campaign spokesperson Kevin Muñoz said Sunday in a statement, “A reminder: Pennsylvania is home to more than 1 million Latinos who are primarily of Puerto Rican backgrounds, and today, Vice President Harris campaigned in the heart of Philadelphia’s Puerto Rican community talking not just about her vision for the island, but how she will lower costs and create opportunity in their communities on the mainland.”
On Tuesday, Trump is expected to campaign in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where Latinos make up 54% of the population, the majority being of Puerto Rican descent.
Republican Florida Senator Rick Scott, an ally of Trump’s, also denounced Hinchcliffe’s comments.
“This joke bombed for a reason. It’s not funny and it’s not true,” Scott said. “Puerto Ricans are amazing people and amazing Americans! I’ve been to the island many times. It’s a beautiful place. Everyone should visit! I will always do whatever I can to help any Puerto Rican in Florida or on the island.”
Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar called the comments “racist.”
The island’s Resident Commissioner Jenniffer González-Colón, a Republican running for governor of the island, said the comments were “despicable, inappropriate and disgusting.”
and
contributed to this report.
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