Pharmacists and providers are still allegedly waiting on delayed payments from the Change Healthcare outage, according to a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Friday.
The National Community Pharmacists Association, which represents more than 19,000 independent pharmacies, joined 39 providers in alleging Change Healthcare parent company UnitedHealth Group's actions in response to a February cyberattack allegedly affected their ability to make payroll, pay rent and purchase medical supplies.
Related: UnitedHealth increases projected cost of Change Healthcare hack
Healthcare payment, claims processing, insurance verification and other vital functions came to a halt after UnitedHealth Group disconnected Change Healthcare systems following the cybersecurity incident earlier this year. The company generally processes 15 billion healthcare transactions annually and manages one-third of patient records.
The plaintiffs claim UnitedHealth Group allegedly failed to take actions to prevent the ransomware attack, allegedly misinformed them about its cybersecurity measures and allegedly caused financial challenges related to inadequate reimbursement, according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.
“Plaintiffs and Class members have not received payments for their healthcare services or have received late payments depriving them of the time-value of money and loss of interest and have incurred extra costs from switching to another healthcare payment software,” the complaint says.
Change Healthcare and Optum, the UnitedHealth Group subsidiary that operates Change, are also named defendants. UnitedHealth Group did not respond to a request for comment.
UnitedHealth Group took a prioritized approach to restoring Change's various platforms. Four months later, restoration is still in progress for for at least one product, services are partially available for at least nine products and a restoration date has not been determined for one product.
“This breach has cost our members a significant amount of money and time and it is still not resolved months later,” Douglas Hoey, CEO of the National Community Pharmacists Association, said in a news release Monday.
Patients and providers have filed dozens of lawsuits against UnitedHealth Group for exposing personal data and delaying payments. The American Medical Association is also weighing a lawsuit regarding the cyberattack.
On its earnings call last week, UnitedHealth Group increased its projected cost of the cyberattack to $2.45 billion this year.
Last month, Change Healthcare began notifying business partners whose confidential information was compromised in the cyberattack, and it said it planned to begin contacting specific people in late July. UnitedHealth Group said in April the cyberattack likely exposed the personal information of a “substantial proportion of people in America.”
