Healthcare major UnitedHealth Group (NYSE:UNH) has advanced loans totaling over $3.3 billion to care providers that were impacted by a cyberattack on UNH’s tech unit, Change Healthcare, last month.
The Attack
Change Healthcare creates and settles insurance claims. It processes approximately 50% of medical claims for around 900,000 physicians, 33,000 pharmacies, 5,500 hospitals and 600 laboratories. The cyberattack, orchestrated by the hacking group ALPHV/BlackCat, resulted in payment disruptions to doctors and healthcare facilities. It is estimated that it may be months before UNH completely recovers from the disruption.
The Aftermath
The ransomware attack in February impacted insurance claims processing at multiple providers. In response, UNH introduced a temporary funding program to mitigate the impact. According to Reuters, over 40% of these advances have been to safety net hospitals and federally qualified health centers. Last week, UNH noted that it had a backlog of over $14 billion in medical claims.
Moreover, the U.S. Health Department is also investigating the attack to gauge if a breach of protected health data took place. Moreover, the U.S. State Department has offered $10 million for any information on the hackers.
What Is the Forecast for UNH Stock?
UNH’s share price has declined by nearly 6% over the past month. The Street, though, has maintained confidence in the stock with a Strong Buy consensus rating. Additionally, the average UNH price target of $591.29 points to a 19.9% potential upside in the stock.
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