US health department states UnitedHealth has permission to inform patients regarding data breach
US healthcare providers are able to request UnitedHealth Group to alert individuals whose information was compromised during a breach on the company’s Change Healthcare division in February, according to an announcement on the health department’s site.
The announcement brings comfort to US hospitals and healthcare providers who had requested the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to transfer the notification responsibility to UnitedHealth and its division.
“Impacted covered entities interested in having Change Healthcare manage breach notifications on their behalf should get in touch with Change Healthcare,” stated the HHS’ Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in an update released on May 31.
US legislation mandates that data breaches need to be disclosed to affected individuals within 60 days of being discovered.
An official from UnitedHealth expressed gratitude for the clarification provided by OCR, emphasizing their preference to simplify the reporting tasks for their clients.
Earlier this month, the CEO of the healthcare conglomerate, Andrew Witty, informed a Congressional committee that hackers might have accessed a significant portion of Americans’ information during the cyber breach on February 21, resulting in delays in processing medical claims.
The company is actively working on resolving the processing issues.
Witty also mentioned that the company is conducting further investigations to determine the extent of the data breach and expects it to be quite significant.
UnitedHealth cautioned that the breached data may include sensitive details like names, addresses, medical codes, and insurance identifiers, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, citing the company’s responses to queries from the Senate Finance Committee.
The breach at the division handling healthcare billing, data systems, and various other services has led to widespread disruptions in claims processing, affecting patients and providers nationwide.
About Author
