NCPA seeks pause on audits, ahead of cyberattack hearing 

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Independent pharmacies that are still experiencing operational  and financial disruptions related to the Change Healthcare cyberattack have made several asks to Congress as part of two separate congressional hearings today. 

In statements for the record, members of the National Community Pharmacists Associations are urging Congress to: 

• Direct plans and pharmacy benefit managers to pause audits; 

• Make pharmacies whole for dispensing medications to patients in good faith throughout the cyberattack; and 

• Prevent punitive actions based on disruptions in care or recordkeeping that resulted from the event.  

“Too much of our health care system is being allowed to flow through gigantic corporate monsters like UnitedHealth; this unfortunate circumstance is proof-positive of that,” says Douglas Hoey, pharmacist and CEO of NCPA. “This entity rakes in a tremendous amount of cash, yet it arbitrarily denies or slow-walks patient care, under-reimburses providers and otherwise makes it difficult to provide health care services, and fails to protect itself and its customers from a catastrophic cyberattack. These broad, debilitating disruptions reiterate independent pharmacy’s view that UnitedHealth Group should not have been allowed to acquire Change Healthcare in the first place and that Congress and other policymakers must finalize and enforce stronger laws to rein in these behemoths as swiftly as possible.” 

The hearings, held by the Senate Finance Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, will feature testimony from Andrew Witty, CEO of UnitedHealth Group, which acquired Change Healthcare in 2022.