Change Healthcare is beginning the process of notifying a “substantial proportion” of Americans that their private information, such as Social Security numbers and medical diagnoses, was compromised in the cyberattack that brought portions of the U.S. health care system to a halt earlier this year.
On Thursday, Change will begin to notify health care providers, insurance companies, and other customers that their patients’ data was stolen in the company’s February cyberattack, the company said in a statement. Change, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, plans to send letters to individual patients starting in late July.
Change Healthcare is a “clearinghouse” that helps shuttle insurance claims, approvals, benefits information, payments, and other transactions between health care providers and insurers. The organization is central to the U.S. health care system, as it processes around 15 billion transactions worth $1.5 trillion each year. When the company’s system went offline earlier this year, health care providers faced serious cash flow problems and patients struggled to pay for prescriptions. Some of its systems have yet to be restored.
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