Many of Americans are having trouble getting drug prescriptions filled. A cyber attack on a part of Minnetonka, Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare has affected prescription orders at thousands of pharmacies nationwide for nearly a week.
Federal investigators think the attack came from an unidentified foreign country.
The company's unit called "Change Healthcare" handles about 15 billion transactions a year including not just drugs but dental, clinical and other medical needs involving one-in-three U.S. patients.
“We are working on multiple approaches to restore the impacted environment and will not take any shortcuts or take any additional risk as we bring our systems back online,” Change Healthcare said Saturday.
United Health is the nation's largest medical insurer. United Health owns the health-care provider Optum, which merged with Change Healthcare in 2022.
The American Hospital Association released a statement this past Thursday urging health-care organizations to disconnect from Optum until it is deemed safe to reconnect.