Health care security

VA Spokesperson: Change Healthcare Cyberattack Did Not Delay Veteran Benefits

Terrence Hayes, press secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs, said that the cyberattack that paralyzed health care payment system Change Healthcare did not result in significant delays within the agency.

Hayes shared how the VA rapidly moved to address the more than 40,000 veterans’ medications impacted by the cyber incident, ensuring that the breach would not lead to patient harm.

Besides temporarily affecting medication disbursement, the VA did not record any impact to health care benefits received by veterans, with its third-party administrators, Optum and TriWest, continuing to pay providers for claims while the cyber incident was happening, Nextgov/FCW reported.

The ALPHV/Blackcat ransomware gang-led attack on Change Healthcare occurred in February, causing a network outage that led to prescription delays for small pharmacies and some well-established stores across the country.

After the cyberattack, Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., proposed a bill that will ensure continued payment to health care providers even amid an incident.