UnitedHealth Group reported that its subsidiary Optum was subjected to a cyberattack causing IT systems and services to go down. Optum Solutions, a UnitedHealth Group company, manages the Change Healthcare platform, a major payment exchange system in the US healthcare network, which was impacted by this attack.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), UnitedHealth Group claimed that it had 'identified a suspected nation state associated cybersecurity threat actor had gained access to some of the Change Healthcare information technology systems.'

The incident forced UnitedHealth Group to isolate the impacted systems to protect its partners and patients. The firm is aggressively striving to restore regular operations, although it is unsure how long the interruption will last. The outage affects 119 Change Healthcare and Optum services and platforms, including healthcare organisations, clinics, and pharmacies, and is creating issues nationwide with billing, claims processing, and issuing prescriptions.

The American Hospital Association advised healthcare organisations to withdraw from Optum products to protect their data. Some providers have already taken this step. The US military's healthcare provider, Tricare, is also affected, forcing military pharmacies to fill prescriptions manually. Although the nature of the attack is unclear, it exhibits characteristics of a ransomware attack, raising concerns about potential data theft and extortion.