UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty will testify May 1 before a U.S. House subcommittee about the cyberattack on the company's Change Healthcare subsidiary.
Leaders of the U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee and Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations said in an April 19 news release they are looking forward to "learning more on what happened in the lead up to, and in the weeks following," the attack UnitedHealth Group reported Feb. 21.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing April 16 on the fallout surrounding the unprecedented cyberattack, but no individuals representing UnitedHealth Group or its subsidiaries attended the hearing. Lawmakers said the company had previously briefed the committee.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee also sent a letter to Mr. Witty on April 15 seeking information about the cyberattack.
"The health care system is rapidly consolidating at virtually every level, creating fewer redundancies and more vulnerability to the entire system if an entity with significant market share at any level of the system is compromised," the letter said. "In order to understand better the steps UnitedHealth has taken to address this situation, we request information about the impact of the cyberattack, the actions the company is taking to secure its systems, and the outreach to the health care community in the aftermath."
Mr. Witty discussed the cyberattack on UnitedHealth Group's April 16 earnings call with investors. He said the company plans to bring Change Healthcare back stronger than it was before it suffered the cyberattack. He also said it is "important for the country" that UnitedHealth Group owns Change.
"Without UnitedHealth Group owning Change Healthcare, this attack likely would still have happened. It would have left Change Healthcare, I think, extremely challenged to come back," Mr. Witty said.
UnitedHealth Group closed its deal to acquire Change Healthcare, the largest claims clearinghouse in the U.S., in October 2022 after defeating a legal challenge from the Justice Department.