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   UnitedHealth is now asking doctors to repay the loans it gave out following   
   major hack   
      
   Date:   
   Mon, 14 Apr 2025 20:28:00 +0000   
      
   Description:   
   The company issued temporary funding following huge cyberattack, but now    
   wants to recoup costs.   
      
   FULL STORY   
      
   UnitedHealth Group is aggressively going after small healthcare organizations   
   that borrowed money following a huge cyberattack on its subsidy Change   
   Healthcare.    
      
   The attack is said to have affected almost 190 million Americans , and was    
   the largest US healthcare data breach ever, and was incredibly disruptive,   
   with systems only fully restored 9 months later, costing over $2 billion to   
   recover from.    
      
   After the attack, interest-free loans were offered by Change to help medical   
   practices with short-term cash flow needs. The firm is now demanding these   
   funds be immediately repaid, with some organizations asked to repay hundreds   
   of thousands of dollars in just a few days.    
      
   Lost revenue    
      
   Optum, UnitedHealths financial arm, has now confirmed it will withhold   
   separate funds until these loans are repaid.    
      
   Doctors with their own private practices used these loans to cover losses    
   from the disruption following the cyber incident, which cost some hundreds of   
   thousands - and some reportedly used personal savings to keep practices   
   afloat.    
      
   Its worth noting UnitedHealth has a net worth of over $470 billion (at the   
   time of writing), and CEO Andrew Witty made over $23 million in compensation   
   in 2023.    
      
   Optum has collected over $4.5 billion of the $9 billion debt, but since many   
   practices lost so much in downtime thanks to the disruption, many will   
   struggle to repay the money owed in the just 5 day timeframe Optum have   
   imposed, with one doctor describing it as a shakedown.    
      
   UnitedHealth paid the ransomware attackers $22 million in cryptocurrency to   
   recover its data - but the operation was still shut down in its entirety, and   
   Change never got its data back. Medical data is, of course, extremely   
   sensitive, and put anyone exposed at risk of identity theft or fraud.    
      
   Via CNBC   
      
   ======================================================================   
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/unitedhealth-is-now-asking-doctors-to-r   
   epay-the-loans-it-gave-out-following-major-hack   
      
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