UnitedHealth’s problems are not a threat to the entire economy, the chief executive of the nation’s largest health insurer said after senators asked whether UnitedHealth’s size could pose a system-wide threat. (CEO) told a Senate committee Wednesday.
In the first of two scheduled testimony before a Congressional panel about the recent cyberattack on UnitedHealth’s technology division that affected nearly all patients and health care providers, senators He slammed Andrew Whitty.
“Your company has let the country down,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden told Whitty.
UnitedHealth is one of the largest companies in the United States, with a market capitalization of $445 billion and annual revenue of $372 billion. Senators said during the hearing that the company is the 11th largest company in the world.
“The fact that you’re such a large presence means that (the hack) had huge, far-reaching ramifications,” Sen. Bill Cassidy said, adding that the committee’s senators said, “The United States… “We need to ask what is the main role of aviation,” he added. Is it too dominant because United are involved in everything and if you mess with United you mess with everyone? ”
“What I’m saying is that United’s size is almost too big to fail because if we fail, we’re going to be hit much harder than normal.” Cassidy said.
“I actually don’t think that’s because despite our size, for example, we don’t have hospitals in the United States and we don’t own pharmaceutical companies,” Whitty said.
The widespread impact of the hack was a result of UnitedHealth’s control. The Change division at the center of the hack processes about 50% of medical claims for about 900,000 doctors, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals and 600 laboratories in the United States.
Whitty told the committee that U.S. military personnel had their data stolen in a hack.
“We are confident that there are military personnel” who were caught up in the hack, Whitty said, adding that it would be a week or more before it was known that many people were affected.
The company reportedly paid the hackers a $22 million ransom.
“I think the bigger the company, the greater the responsibility it has to protect its systems from hackers. UHG was a big target long before it was hacked,” Wyden said in his opening remarks, calling the hack a national security threat. He added that it was.
UnitedHealth announced last week that the health and personal data of a “significant percentage” of Americans had been stolen.
“UnitedHealth Group has revealed how many patients’ personal medical records were stolen as a result of the hack, how many health care providers were denied reimbursement, and how many seniors were unable to pick up their prescriptions. “We haven’t made it clear what happened,” Wyden said.
Whitty told the committee that the hackers used stolen login credentials to break into UnitedHealth’s technology department on February 12, allowing them remote access to the network. He is scheduled to testify before the House Energy Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee later this afternoon.
The hack caused widespread disruption to payments to doctors and medical facilities.
In a letter to both Congressional committees, the American Hospital Association said that after an internal survey of its members, 94% of hospitals reported cash flow losses and more than half reported lack of ability to process claims at Change. The company said it had reported “significant or serious” financial damage caused by.
