UnitedHealth data breach should be a wake-up call for the UK and NHS
The ransomware attack that has engulfed U.S. health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group and its tech subsidiary Change Healthcare is a data privacy nightmare for millions of U.S. patients, with CEO Andrew Witty confirming this week that it may impact as much as one-third of the country.
But it should also serve as a wake-up call for countries everywhere, including the U.K. where UnitedHealth now plies its trade via the recent acquisition of a company that manages data belonging to millions of NHS (National Health Service) patients.
As one of the largest healthcare companies in the U.S., UnitedHealth is well known domestically, intersecting with every facet of the healthcare industry from insurance and billing and winding all the way through the physician and pharmacy networks — it’s a $500 billion juggernaut, and the 11th largest company globally by revenue. But in the U.K., UnitedHealth is practically unknown, mostly because it’s not had much business across the pond — until six months ago.
After a 16-month regulatory process ending in October, UnitedHealth subsidiary Optum UK, via an affiliate called Bordeaux UK Holdings II Limited, finally took ownership of EMIS Health in a $1.5 billion deal. EMIS Health provides software that connects doctors with patients, allowing them to book appointments, order repeat prescriptions and more. One of these services is Patient Access, which claims some 17 million registered users who collectively made 1.4 million family doctor appointments through the app last year and ordered north of 19 million repeat prescriptions.
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