Senators Josh Hawley (R-MO), Chair and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) have addressed a letter to the CEO of UnitedHealth Group (UHG) in the wake of a significant data breach attributed to the ransomware group BlackCat in February.
The letter seeks clarification on several critical issues: the method of breach into UHG’s essential healthcare systems, the reasons behind the severe and unexplained outage, and whether any patient or provider data was compromised. Furthermore, the Senators urge UHG to expedite payments for claims, extending beyond those directly associated with UHG, to mitigate the impact on providers. They also inquire about the measures UHG has implemented to prevent future breaches.
Highlighting the consequences of the breach, the Senators describe the aftermath as severe, with providers struggling to fill prescriptions, verify patient eligibility for treatment, and process insurance claims. Despite efforts to resolve the situation, the service disruption extends over three weeks without full resolution.
For more information, read the full letter here.
