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Local pharmacies impacted by insurance processor outage

Minot pharmacies along with many more throughout the country have been unable to process prescriptions through patients’ insurance after a major cyberattack against one of the nation’s largest prescription payment processors.

A representative from the Broadway Thrifty White Pharmacy confirmed that a majority of their online processing went offline Wednesday afternoon, and the few that were working were slowly going down as well. While pharmacies are able to fill prescriptions for pick up, the prices will not reflect insurance coverage until services return.

The disruption in service was first reported by Optum Solutions on Wednesday. Optum released a variety of updates following the initial outages, saying, “Change Healthcare is experiencing a cyber security issue, and our experts are working to address the matter.”

“Once we became aware of the outside threat, in the interest of protecting our partners and patients, we took immediate action to disconnect our systems to prevent further impact,” Optum also said.

Optum, which merged with tech company Change Healthcare two years ago in a reported $7.8 million deal, said in a statement that the issue was believed to be specific to Change Healthcare and that other systems in the UnitedHealth Group remained operational.

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