UnitedHealth Group: vulnerable and ill-equipped to defend against modern threats like cyberattacks
The cyberattack against UnitedHealth’s Change Healthcare unit highlights the inherent risk of consolidating vast amounts of patient and health care provider data under a handful of corporate entities.
UnitedHealth's recent cyberattack underscores a critical truth: no entity, no matter how vast its resources, is immune to the ever-looming threat of cybercrime. This breach, resulting in the potential theft of sensitive patient data, is a stark reminder of the urgent need for comprehensive health care reform–and reining in the growing power for-profit corporations like UnitedHealth have over all of us.
For years, the health care industry has operated under a profit-driven model, prioritizing financial gain over patient well-being. This relentless pursuit of profit has left our health care infrastructure vulnerable and ill-equipped to defend against modern threats like cyberattacks.
Moreover, incidents like United’s cyberattack highlight the inherent risks of consolidating vast amounts of patient and health care provider data under a handful of corporate entities. UnitedHealth's status as by far the largest health care company in the U.S. amplifies the magnitude of this breach. Do you think the hackers would have gone after UnitedHealth subsidiary Change Healthcare if it wasn’t part of one of the biggest corporations on the planet and one with very deep pockets? I doubt it.
I know from my time in the industry that the top job objective of C-Suite executives is to enhance shareholder value. As significant shareholders themselves, those executives’ net worth fluctuates depending on how Wall Street reacts to any news about or from the company. That is their “skin in the game.”
Last week, the cyberattack and other negative news about the company and the industry broadly led to a sustained drop in UnitedHealth’s stock price. That means the net worth of the company’s executives is considerably less today than it was just a few days ago. But don’t feel sorry for them; the stock price will recover eventually. It always does. Keep in mind that while the company is unable to pay thousands of the country’s doctors and hospitals for who knows how long because of the hack, UnitedHealth will be able to hold on to billions of dollars in premium income longer, and that will boost its investment income, which is considerable on any day of the week.
As Modern Healthcare reported last week, “Health insurance companies had a terrific 2023 on Wall Street–as investors.” Reporter Nona Tepper wrote that many of the largest publicly traded health insurers–including UnitedHealth–raked in the largest investment gains in at least a decade last year. Collectively, investment portfolio profits increased 53.2% from 2022 for eight for-profit insurers. Looking over the past decade, UnitedHealth’s investment gains were the most impressive and almost literally off the charts, increasing from $779 million in 2014 to $4.1 billion last year.
While the cyberattack undoubtedly is keeping a lot of UnitedHealth’s staff working overtime, the company’s stock price ($481.87 at the close of the market yesterday, down $7.66 from Monday’s close) is still much higher than its 52-week low of $445.68.
It’s an entirely different story at countless physician practices and hospitals that depend on UnitedHealth’s subsidiary Change Healthcare to pay them what they’re owed. And they’re scoffing at UnitedHealth’s offer to provide loans to providers to help them keep their doors open and treat patients while the company struggles to fix this giant mess.
Here’s what Dr. Christine Meyer of Exton, Pa. wrote on LinkedIn a few days ago:
UnitedHealth Group got hacked. They own a bazillion companies, profited billions of dollars last year, pay their CEO $21M annually. As a result, the ability of tens of thousands of clinicians to submit claims to insurance dried up and with it our cash flow.
After nine days, we had a glimmer of hope that (UnitedHealth division) Optum was going to provide some relief in the form of a loan based on claims submissions to be paid weekly. Here is what they are going to offer me: $1000/week in a loan.$4000/month. We submit about $500,000 a month of charges. Not only is a $4000/month loan meaningless, it is downright insulting. I have had a glorious 20-plus-year career. I have 84 employees depending on me. We care for 20,000 patients in our community. This week, for the first time in a very long time, I am questioning my mental capacity to get through this.
Yesterday, the American Hospital Association called on Congress to get involved to help doctors and health care facilities while United struggles to right its ship. AHA President and CEO Richard Pollack called United’s temporary loan program “not even a band-aid on the payment problems.”
Health care reform isn't just about expanding access to care—it's about fundamentally reimagining our health care system to prioritize patient safety and security. We need robust regulations that mandate stringent cybersecurity measures across the industry, ensuring that patient data is safeguarded against malicious actors. And we also need lawmakers and regulators to wake up to the harm they are sanctioning by allowing companies like UnitedHealth to gobble up more and more of our health care system.
By shifting toward a patient-centered model and holding corporations accountable for their actions, we can begin to rebuild a health care system that truly serves the needs of Americans—not the bottom line. Additionally, we must address the root causes of corporate greed and incentivize healthcare providers to prioritize patient care – and security – over profits.
Private ownership in healthcare has FAILED since its inception. All we have seen is the health insurance companies raise rates to the point healthcare in the world’s richest country is not the best care, but ranks rather poorly among all advanced economies. I’ve lived in Canada, the UK, Japan and I participated in a private plan in Thailand, which had better care and quality than I have experienced in the USA. Our healthcare is the world’s most expensive. That is an undeniable fact. The private insurers particularly in Medicare Advantage routinely deny care, delay care and overcharge the Medicare trust fund. Sadly our politicians on both sides of the aisle do not care. They think replacing Traditional Medicare with Medicare (dis) Advantage is the way to go. Their trust in Bif “for profit” business provides them campaigning funds for buying elections. What about the American People. We don’t have a say when we are denied care, or we cannot see a specialist or when the specialist who supports a procedure is over-ruled by the insurance companies who are not held accountable for their actions. When there are 10,000 or more deaths caused to paying customers/patients on preventable illnesses, this is not due to the Government; the root cause is the avarice of the private sector and unscrupulous executives who simply are interested in increasing profits for higher compensation on the American Peoples’ lives. That is involuntary murder and we need to halt this sort of irresponsibility. I personally wouldn’t be raising red flags except that I am a volunteer with the nonprofit organization Be a Hero Trust Fund, that, along with others groups whose members have experienced being denied care or delayed care leading to further medical complications is no different than what conservatives have said would lead to death panels. The health panels are not due to the government, but the decisions made by these Big Health Insurance Providers. Let’s stop spreading myths. The reality is far from the misinformed remarks regurgitated year after year by those who have the greatest interest in preserving an unsustainable status quo of privatized healthcare in these United States.
The concentration of data and the lack of real consequences (so far) for UnitedHealth means that this is likely to happen again, either at UnitedHealth or another big healthcare processor.