The American Hospital Association (AHA) called on Congress Monday to address the “fallout” of a major cyberattack on a health care system that occurred Feb. 21.
AHA described the cyberattack on Change Healthcare on Feb. 21 as “the most significant cyberattack on the U.S. health care system in American history” and emphasized the continued difficulties their members experience from the hacking in a letter to the U.S. Congress. (RELATED: SZABO: Biden’s Cybersecurity Failures Put Americans at Risk While Criminals Run Free)
AHA urges Congress to provide support to help minimize further fallout from Change Healthcare attack: https://t.co/3Rj8gL2bDj #AHAToday pic.twitter.com/oCpwZKHwNL
— American Hospital Association (@ahahospitals) March 4, 2024
The ransomware group ALPHV, also called Blackcat, allegedly asserted they were behind the attack, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Change Healthcare did not say whether they paid the ransom or not, according to the outlet.
“Significant portions of Change Healthcare’s functionality have been crippled. As a result, patients have struggled to get timely access to care and billions of dollars have stopped flowing to providers, thereby threatening the financial viability of hospitals, health systems, physician offices and other providers,” the letter read in part about the effects of the cyberattack on the health care system.
AHA explained in their letter that attempts to deal with the aftereffects of the hacking were largely unsuccessful and that their health care system was still in crisis mode with several important functions still not being operational. “Unfortunately, UnitedHealth Group’s efforts to date have not been able to meaningfully mitigate the impact to our field,” the organization wrote. AHA added that they sent a letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on Feb. 26 about the matter but had received no reply.
AHA requested that Congress direct the proper authorities “to prioritize and expedite review and approval of hospital requests for Medicare advanced payments,” provide guidance which outlines expectations for needed reforms and waivers related to cyberattack, and direct HHS Secretary Becerra to take appropriate action in their letter.
AHA is a national organization founded in 1898 that seeks to represent the needs of “[n]early 5,000 hospitals, health care systems, networks, other providers of care and 43,000 individual members,” according to their website.