Do employers really know how safe their data is? UnitedHealth’s payment processing company Change Healthcare found out the hard way after being hacked last month — and the consequences are staggering.
Change Healthcare is responsible for 14 billion clinical, financial and operational transactions each year, according to its website, and processes an estimated 50% of medical claims in the U.S. To put it lightly, Change Healthcare’s cyberattack on Feb. 21 put American provider and patient data at risk, and now the U.S. government is opening an investigation to find out how much data has been breached and if the company has complied with HIPPA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), which protects patient information.
