Pharmacies Face Disruption After Cyberattack on Healthcare Tech Company

Pharmacies across the U.S. are reporting delays in filling prescriptions due to a cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a major healthcare technology vendor.

Change Healthcare first noticed the “cyber security issue” affecting its network on Wednesday morning. The company said experts are working to address the matter after it took immediate action to disconnect systems and prevent further impact.

The disruption stems from an outside threat against Change Healthcare, which handles prescription orders and payments for pharmacies nationwide. With the vendor’s systems down, pharmacies are unable to process many insurance plans.

Medical facilities and pharmacies have posted notices about the outage disrupting their pharmacy services. They say they are unable to bill insurers and warn of delays in filling prescriptions.

There is no public report yet on the nature or origin of the cyberattack. Change Healthcare has not provided a timeline for restoring service but says it hopes to resolve the issue by Friday.

In the meantime, pharmacies are trying to accommodate individual prescription needs despite the inability to process most insurance claims. Patients may face delays in getting medications until Change Healthcare’s systems are back online.

The cyberattack shows the fragility of the healthcare technology infrastructure that pharmacies rely on. A single vendor outage can cause nationwide disruption even if individual facilities are still operating. Pharmacies urge patience as they grapple with the ripple effects of the hack.