Independent pharmacists across New York are committing to temporarily fill certain prescriptions via signed paper authorization from prescribers, protecting patients’ continuum of care during a cyberattack on Change Healthcare.
The cyberattack, first reported on Wednesday, February 21, has impacted Change Healthcare’s ability to facilitate patient and insurer payments to pharmacies, as well as certain methods of claims processing, patient verification and more. During this event, millions of prescriptions across New York and the United States cannot be transmitted, processed or paid through traditional electronic means. It is unknown whether or to what extent the company’s client data has been compromised.
“New York’s pharmacists are committed to providing in-person, face-to-face care for our valued patients, and we know how important it is that each person receives their needed medications in a timely fashion,” said Leigh McConchie, RPh, president of the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York (PSSNY) and owner of Stone’s Pharmacy in Lake Luzerne. “That’s why independent pharmacies like mine are committing to continue dispensing medications today, and keeping careful records to submit for payment once this crisis is resolved.”
Since 2015, New York law has required electronic prescriptions to be transmitted directly to pharmacies for dispensing. However, the law allows physicians, practitioners and other authorized prescribers to issue written prescriptions for medication when “electronic prescribing is not available due to temporary technological or electronic failure.”
The company experiencing the current failure, Change Healthcare, is a claims and payment processing company known in the health industry as a “switch” company. As part of Optum and UnitedHealth Group, Change Healthcare is part of a massive vertically-integrated healthcare company, which have become commonplace in modern American healthcare. As a pharmacy benefit manager (PBM), Optum and UnitedHealth alone controlled nearly a quarter of the U.S. drug market in 2022 and have gained in size and assets since then.
“The wide scale and impact of this cyberattack highlights the market weaknesses and threats to patient care that are caused by massive vertical integration and PBM’s,” said Heather Ferrarese, PSSNY board chair and owner of Bartle’s Pharmacy in Oxford. “UnitedHealth Group ranked 10th by revenue on the Global Fortune 500 in 2023. This harmful monopolization has been allowed to run unchecked at the federal level and is only just beginning to be addressed at the state level. The longer these monopolies control healthcare, the more pronounced the drawbacks will be for patients and pharmacies alike.”
During the continuing cyberattack, patients of independent pharmacies may receive written prescriptions from their physical or health provider and can deliver the written prescription to their pharmacy for dispensing. Patients of non-independent pharmacies such as major chains or grocery stores are advised to contact their pharmacy provider directly for instructions on how to fill important prescriptions.
About the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York:
The Pharmacists Society of the State of New York (PSSNY) has served as the society for the state’s pharmacists for more than 138 years providing advocacy and resources to pharmacists to improve patient care. To learn more about PSSNY, visit www.PSSNY.org.
