Until the cyberattack on Change Healthcare is resolved, military pharmacists will accept prescriptions in person at service counters. (Douglas Stutz/U.S. Navy)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Human error caused an outage that brought Military Health System Genesis — the freshly installed online system at U.S. health care facilities worldwide — to a standstill in late February, according to the Defense Health Agency.
The system-wide temporary blackout on Feb. 26 affected nearly all DHA systems and left patients unable to schedule appointments or tests or communicate with providers.
Pharmacy services through MHS Genesis are still unavailable due to an unrelated cyberattack on an outside service provider, Change Healthcare, that is still unresolved.
Human error caused the 4 ½-hour-long service interruption on Feb. 26, not a technical issue with MHS Genesis, according to an emailed statement from an unidentified DHA spokesperson Friday. All Genesis systems were restored except online access to prescription services.
“The impacted systems included clinical systems such as internet capabilities, access to www.tricare.mil and www.health.mil, email, and records,” the message said.
Until the cyberattack on Change Healthcare is resolved, military pharmacists will accept prescriptions in person at service counters.
Change Healthcare is the largest prescription processor in the U.S., and one of the main suppliers of prescription medication to military pharmacies.
The cyberattack by the Blackcat ransomware gang cost the company $22 million and continues to snarl its payment and billing services, according to numerous media reports.
The Department of Health and Human Services stepped in to assist health care providers affected by the attack and experiencing “an inability to submit claims and receive payments,” according to a department news release Tuesday.
When it detected the cyberattack, Change Healthcare disconnected its systems to protect patient information, according to an updated news release Tuesday from Tricare, the military health care provider.
Prescription delays for military patients persist because of the Change cyberattack.
“Pharmacy wait times may still be longer than expected due to persisting issues from the [cyberattack],” Master Sgt. Nathan Allen, a spokesman for Yokota’s 374th Airlift Wing, told Stars and Stripes in an email Feb. 29. “We are grateful for the community’s understanding and patience during this time.”
