Tens of thousands of pharmacies across America unable to get prescriptions to patients after major cyberattack by ‘foreign nation’ – a day after cellphone services went down

A cyberattack on a UnitedHealth unit has prevented pharmacies across the country from delivering prescriptions to patients.

The company said in a regulatory document Thursday that its Change Healthcare unit, which processes prescriptions at tens and thousands of pharmacies across the country, was compromised by an “alleged cybersecurity threat actor associated with a nation-state.”

The hack began on Wednesday, preventing several pharmacies from processing prescriptions to insurance companies.

It’s unclear exactly how many pharmacies or patients were affected, but UnitedHealth is the nation’s largest health insurer, serving about 7.7 million customers.

Several prescription providers announced that they were affected by the attack.

CVS Health, which has more than 9,000 pharmacies, said the hack meant that, “in certain cases,” it was unable to process insurance claims.

“We are committed to ensuring access to care as we navigate this disruption,” the company’s statement said. A spokesperson for the network did not immediately provide further details.

Walgreens, which serves nine million customers, said a “small percentage” of its prescriptions “may be affected,” but that the company had safeguards in place to process and fill them “with minimal delay or disruption.”

The company said it had no additional information to share about the incident.

Publix Super Markets did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but on social media some users complained of problems trying to fill their prescriptions.

“This is a nationwide outage,” Publix said in response to a user on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Other companies, including GoodRX and Montana’s BlueCross BlueShield, also flagged potential outages on social media.

“We apologize for any interruption you experienced while at the pharmacy,” GoodRx wrote on X.

“Unfortunately, the issue is external and affects both GoodRx and a multitude of providers.”

‘Our team is aware of the issue and is working to ensure it is resolved. We appreciate your patience!’

Independent pharmacies also reported problems.

“Please be patient with us and all pharmacies affected by this,” Dayton Drug and Wellness, a community pharmacy in Dayton, Tennessee, wrote on its Facebook page.

“There have been and will be delays until this is resolved,” Skippack Pharmacy in Skippack, Pennsylvania, said in another message posted on Facebook. “Pharmacies across the country are affected.”

“There have been and will be delays until this is resolved,” Skippack Pharmacy in Skippack, Pennsylvania, said in another message posted on Facebook. “Pharmacies across the country are affected.”