St. Luke’s and Essentia both affected by Change Healthcare cyberattack

St. Luke’s and Essentia Health have both reported that they have been impacted by a cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a unit of UnitedHealth.

Change Healthcare processes prescriptions to insurance of pharmacies nationwide and was compromised by hackers who gained access to some of its systems.

St. Luke’s released the following statement:

“While pharmacies nationally are handling the service disruption differently, St. Luke’s and Lake View want to reassure patients they remain our top priority. We understand the importance of timely prescription fills. Therefore, we will continue filling prescriptions for our patients as usual, and we will bill insurance companies when Change Healthcare is back up and running.”

Essentia Health released the following statement:

“We are aware of the situation involving Change Healthcare and Optum, one of our vendors for processing payments from insurance companies. We are taking all the necessary precautions to protect our patient information. It’s important to note that this is not affecting patient care at Essentia Health. Similarly, Essentia pharmacies are able to receive prescriptions and dispense medications. However, our pharmacy colleagues in some situations may not be able to immediately let patients know how much of the cost will be covered by insurance. We will continue to monitor this situation closely and will share information as it becomes available.”